Bloodlines, Adrian's Person Of View
by number101
Summary: This is Adrian Ivashkov's side of the Bloodlines story, following him as he leaves Court for Palm Springs, where he moves in with the just slightly insane moroi Clarence, and meets the alchemist Sydney Sage, with whom he discovers to have more in common than he initially thought. Rated T, because Adrian is too hot to be K ;)
1. Chapter 1

_Set just before the begin of bloodlines. I always had a dream of writing actual fanfiction instead of lurking in the shadows like strigoi and reading everyone elses stories. I finally got some time, and I started writing bloodlines in Adrian's person of view. Because the action for Adrian begins before Sydney comes to Palm Springs, I decided I'd start at the dinner Jill was attacked. Oh, and yeah, Richelle Mead is the almighty goddess behind the moroi/strigoi/dhampir world and owns all. _

I was still sitting on my chair by the table, staring at the exquisitely designed flower-shaped bowl of garlic-crème-something that was standing in front at me, tracing the shape of the porcelain leaves with my eyes while my feelings clashed inside of me. Roses beautiful features, the sound of her laughter and her sparkling brown eyes. The happiness and the love I had felt for her, and the devastating pain, and sadness that followed when she had torn my heart out.

I downed my third glass of champagne, the only alcoholic drink my father had allowed me on this dinner with the two Dragomirs, of whom one was our brand new queen Lissa. She was Rose's best friend. Sigh. Rose… Beautiful smile… Sparkling eyes… Heartbreak. God, I would need at least three more of those stupid bottles of light bubbly alcohol, before I could finally let myself drown in drunk numbness, and would be able to peacefully entertain my tablemates with ramble about skeletons on motorbikes.

So, I was just about to earn another disapproving look from my father by refilling my glass (I sometimes liked to fantasize that one day I would photograph every way my dad could look angry and disappointed, and put them in a gallery, so people besides myself would get to enjoy his seemingly endless ways to frown, and I'd make a huge amount of money from people who'd pay to admire my extended collection) when it happened. The large window in the royal dining room shattered, and cold wind from outside blew in my face, awakening me from the slight alcoholic daze that I had already accomplished. From the gap now emerged a group of masked moroi, armed with pointy daggers that appeared to be related to the stakes guardians use.

Speaking of guardians, every single one in the room shot up from their seats by the table in the back, and moved towards Lissa so fast that it was like they were metal paperclips, and she was a super strong magnet. And it certainly looked like the attackers were coming for her...

Then, suddenly, all at once, like they were rehearsing some sort of Michael Jackson videoclip, they all turned around on their heels, and in the blink of an eye, one of them had gotten a hold of Jill Dragomir, Lissa's only just discovered sister, and lifted his dagger. My eyes widened in fear and shock, as I saw the dagger move in lightning speed, towards the girl that I considered my little sister, and saw the razor sharp blade break through the soft satin of the dress she wore, piercing her skin.

Her scream was deafening. It was only then that I noticed I had been wrong when I'd thought that all of the guardians went for Lissa. One sole guardian had gone for Jill instead.

Eddie Castile was shoving the masked dinner-party-crashers aside in a desperate attempt to reach the Moroi girl before it was too late. As I saw him fighting them, I realized that I had been standing completely still, frozen by shock and horror. I immediately ran towards Jill as well, crashing into one of our attackers. I certainly wasn't a fighter, but I had to see that Jill was okay. So I shoved my way through our moroi attackers and guardians, working toward the spot where she lay on the floor, her blue gown soaked in red. Her eyes were staring into the distance, not seeing anything.

"Jill, Please, Jill, say something! Jill!" I yelled at her repeating her name over and over again. I gazed into her eyes, waiting for a response, a sign, anything at all, that she recognized me. But her gaze stayed blank. I pressed my hands to the wound in her chest and pressed it. The magic flooded me, and I felt the euphoria of using spirit take over. A golden glow, that was what it looked like when I saw spirit in someone's aura. But it didn't only look like that, it felt like that too. Soft gold surrounding my mind, my body, lighting me up to incredible heights. The metaphor only reminded me of how far I could fall down again, when the thrill of using magic was past. But I didn't linger on that thought very long. The fighting around us gradually slowed down, but I barely noticed. All I saw, were Jill's eyes, as she gazed up at me in wonder. The last thing I remember is tracing the movement of her lips as she whispered me a soundless "thank you."

I must have passed out after that, because I don't remember going home.

...

_I was lying in my own bed, and I opened my eyes slowly. My mother was sitting in the spinning chair in my room, which, strangely was red, instead of the light green color I could have sworn it'd had yesterday. But it didn't matter. I felt so happy to see my mother. I wanted to throw my arms around her and hold her forever, but my head spun as I tried to sit up. Wow, how much, and what, had I actually drunk last night?_

_I immediately noticed something was wrong. My mother's soft features seemed hardened, and it was only when I met her stare that I realized she looked angry. Which was strange. Danielle Ivashkov didn't get angry. She got upset. Getting angry at me was more my dad's thing. "What's wrong..", I groaned, wishing I 'd sound more coherent. My vision blurred for a second, as I heard her reply "What isn't wrong. You surely must know. All my life.., All my life I have done everything a loving and caring mother would do. I never showed my sadness."She turned away._

_"I would not complain when you came home with some girl without self-respect, or if you threw up in my expensive ming dynasty vase, again. Or that time when you got drunk, and decided it might be good if you washed your clothes using vodka instead of soap, and kept telling me the smell would suit your personality better. But now I'm done. I will not accept your behavior any longer."_

_I had never seen my mother this angry, and for once, I didn't have a quick retort. When I didn't respond, she carried on._

_"Endless nights, I cried over you, wondering what I did wrong. But now I realize, there is nothing I could have done. It's you." As she spoke, her voice started sounding lower than I'd ever heard. It was my father's voice, even though he wasn't there, and my mother's lips where moving in sync with the words._

_"I would want anyone, anyone but you as a son. You ruined my life." My mother's distorted voice was filled with bitterness, and for the first time in years, I felt tears sting behind my eyes.._

A movement woke me. Jill sat on the edge of my bed, shaking my shoulder. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "It's just a dream, wake up, Adrian, please!"

I looked up at her, torn and confused. Then I realized something. "I think I ruined my mother's life." I told Jill. "But now she's gone, and you are here. Are you really here?"

"You didn't ruin Mrs. Ivashkovs life. "Jill responded in a soft voice, trying not to sob between words. "It was just a dream. But I'm really here. And you are the only reason for that."

I realized something else. "You died yesterday. You were dead. And then.."

"Then you brought me back." Said Jill. It all started to come back to me now. Healing Jill. And my mother, she couldn't have been here. She was locked up somewhere. It all came back to me now. And it also explained the dream. I groaned. "Spirit dream." Of course, spirit couldn't just bother me while I was awake. It had to mess with my subconscious too.

"Why are you crying?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." she said, "Now that you're awake, I am. That dream was terrible. You must feel horrible after hearing that.. But it's not true. I'm sure your mother still loves you."

She spoke at high speed now, tears still in her huge eyes. "Wait.." How do you know about.."

And then.. a sudden clarity hit me. "You knew what I was dreaming. You were crying about it. Lissa brought Rose back. And they were bonded after that. Which means.."

Jill nodded, confirming my earlier thoughts. "We are bonded."

Oh, no... no, no, no! Jill could feel my emotions and hear my thoughts! I felt a complete set of emotions wave through me. Panic, followed by annoyance and embarrasment for having to share my private thoughts, followed by sadness and confusion. Confusion stuck. And Jill felt it too, judging from the look on her face. Whether it was her own feeling, or just my feelings sensed by her, I could only guess. I took a few moments to steady myself. After that, I sat up in my bed.

"Well, and here I thought I was bad enough already without corrupting the mind of a fifteen year old girl" I said, dryly.

_I hope you liked reading this, because I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope I can find some time (school is always keeping me busy) to write the next chapter. If you find mistakes, please let me know, but bear in mind that English is not my native language (I'm a dutchie :3 ) and that I haven't finished high school yet, so sorry for any horrible grammatical errors. Comments would make me the most happy person in the world._

_Love, Number 101 _


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello you guys! Here's a very early update, because I got hooked on writing Still no Sydrian action in this one, but they'll meet each other in the next one, which will be up a.s.a.p. A huge thank you to the ones who commented this early! I fixed the issues with paragraphs, and it's better in this chapter. I'm so surprised how many people actually looked at my story! **Disclamer:** All hail Richelle Mead before reading this, because I don't own it, and she does (and I'm obviously jealous)_

I knew I couldn't sleep anymore after discovering all that, so I decided to get up. Jill had left, telling me in her typical rambling style of speaking she had been summoned to meet Queen Lissa, and that I was expected as soon as I was up to it, and that I "Absolutely shouldn't hurry because that healing must have taken so much out of you and they would totally understand if you just stayed in your room and rested some more or something.."

I had told her I'd be there, and had then laid back on my bed, overthinking everything I had just learned. I healed Jill. Jill was bonded to me. She could feel what I felt. I wondered what was my worst problem. That the effect on my brains from performing a spirit healing might actually turn me into a nonsense-talking mental case, or that Jill had to listen to it happening.

It was one of the first days since Rose broke up with me that I had woken up without a hangover, and all the lights and colors that usually hurt my head, seemed different. I noticed details about my own room I had never seen. My bed was made with a green sheath, color matching my eyes. There was a vase with a lily in it on my bedside table. Lilies were my new favorite flowers, I decided. They were clean and pretty . Before, it had been roses, but seeing them now caused an ache in my chest, reminding me of the person who shared their name. But the lily made me smile as while I got dressed. Spirit was known for messing with your emotions, and I knew mood swings were a part of it. But right now, I didn't feel like questioning the sudden happy feeling or waiting for my next nervous breakdown.

AsI walked down the hallway, whispers seemed to surround me. I think I picked up 'spirit boy' and 'healing' and my favorite: 'magical superpowers'. I sighed. Court and high school really were all the same.

"I can hear you, you know" I said out loud, addressing the two moroi girls who had said it. "Magical superpowers include extreme power hearing. If you'll excuse me now, I have to turn back time and change all the kryptonite on earth into K-iron, so nothing can harm me anymore."

I almost laughed as I saw the astonishment on their faces, as I turned around and walked away, towards the door of queen Vasilissa's quarters. I knocked on the door.

"Who's there?" A very familiar voice asked. Rose. I took a little moment to prepare myself for the blow of seeing her face again.

"Superman." I replied trying my very best to keep my tone light, "who else did you expect."

The door opened, and sure enough, Rose was standing there, looking up at me. I had a hard time figuring out what that look meant.

"It's good to see you again, Adrian." She said, studying me cautiously, as if I might break into tears or go mad. It was probably the last one she was afraid of.

All sorts of responses popped into my head, from "You look beautiful" To "Stupid Russian-guy loving blood whore." Instead, I just went with a nod. My previous happiness had faded. "So, tell me why I'm here."

Apparently, I was here, because they were going to send Jill away, so she'd be safe. Everyone had been shocked by yesterday's attack, and it was one of the most panicked meetings I had ever seen. Lissa did a great job at keeping order though, handling the stressed out moroi with her signature calmness. Rose stood behind her, as a silent support. They eventually decided they would contact the alchemists, and send her to some place sunny, to decrease strigoi risks. They also wanted to enroll Jill in the local high school. It still didn't really make sense to me why I was watching this entire organization though, until Lissa herself walked up to me, followed by Rose, and, to my horror, Dimitri.

"I would like you to come along with Jill to Palm Springs". She told me.

My eyes widened. "Why?" I asked. "Jill told me about you being bonded. It will be better for her to have you close while she gets used to it." I understood that, sort of, but that didn't mean I was happy about it.

"I've got better things to do than babysitting Jill." I said, annoyed.

Rose actually smirked at that. "If I still know you at all, it's more likely going to be the other way around." She said.

A snappy retort was on the edge of my tongue, but I kept my mouth shut. Her teasing me about my bad habits was so much like it had been before. I hadn't made progress in getting over her at all, I realized. All I had managed was getting drunk. But at least that helped. Being sober wasn't fun at all. I decided to go search some gin as soon as I could get out of here. I suddenly needed it badly, the I felt while about seeing rose standing there, next to Dimitri, their hands just barely touching was slowly swallowing me.

To make matters even worse, Dimitri decided to say something, too. "It's a good idea, and honestly, it will be nice for Jill to have someone familiar around."

I think he felt sorry for me, because Rose chose him. I saw Rose shoot him a grateful look, and her hand crept into his. Ugh, I thought I was going to be sick. Suddenly getting out of here didn't seem all that bad, even if it meant being sent away to some desert."Yeah, I'll go. It's not like I have another purpose in my life." I said bitterly.

Jill came running up to me after that. She had felt I was upset through the bond, and came to my rescue. "Lissa, can I talk to you for a second? And Rose and Dimitri, It'd be nice if you could help me out too. Sorry to steal them from you, Adrian." She winked at me, and I shot her a grateful look.

I was out of there in seconds, only refraining from running because that would attract to much attention. I snuck out to the kitchen first, collecting whatever alcoholic beverages I could find. Then I went to stand in the empty hallway, and put the bottle to my lips. I took a long sip, and sighed, sitting down against the concrete wall. It was so confusing, Rose and Dimitri, Jill having to help me. Them all sending me away. Didn't they want me there? Did I even want me there? Was all of this even real or just spirit messing with me? "Just make it go away." I whispered. "Go away."

I didn't really know who I was talking to. But the sound of my own voice seemed calming, so I kept on talking. "Leave me alone. I don't want to think. Go away."

I was so wrapped up in my own mind, that I hadn't noticed someone had come to stand next to me. Abe Mazur.

"Can't do that just yet. I've got a favor I have to ask of you. I want you to go with Jill and do something for me?"

"Why would I?" I asked. It wasn't like I owed him anything.

"Because," Abe said, looking at me in a way that suddenly reminded me that he was Rose's father. "It will give you something you need too. A purpose."

_So, that was it. I hoped you liked it, and will tell me what you thought. Any ideas are always welcome, because I already know I'm going to find it hard to write Adrian's first thoughts on Sydney, because it definitely isn't love on first sight with them. _

_Love, number 101_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hi, here I am again, with another chapter expressing my love for Adrian Ivashkov. Finally, he'll meet Sydney! Before you start jumping up and down out of excitement for hot Sydrian action, though, I'll warn you, I'm sticking to the books, so Adrian will not immediately be consumed by undying love for Sydney, right away, or anything like that. __**Disclamer: **__Richelle Mead is an all owning genious. Enough said. _

How exactly I ended up in the van bumping up and down over the highway remained a mystery to me. I'd like to say that they'd just kidnapped me, but that would be lying, and lying would probably be considered as bad. If I had to be honest, Abe's words had made more of an impression on me than I'd let on when I talked to him. A purpose. Something to do with my life. Something to live for, and hold on to. Yes, it might actually be what I needed. So I had called Lissa, and let her know I was in. I'd told her I was ready to serve the kingdom, and do whatever was necessary to keep Jill safe and protect the throne. I liked to think that I had made pretty decent speech about loyalty to our kingdom and doing what's right. And Jill had been ecstatic, like I had expected, to have me coming along. I thought the crush she had on me would probably pass pretty quickly now that she could hear my thoughts, but she would still be happy to have me around.

What I hadn't expected, was were the people accompanying us on this trip. sitting in the seat in front of me was nobody but Abe Mazur himself. His presence only was all it took to bother me. And I started to have my doubts about coming on this trip. But he wasn't the reason that I felt a huge knot in my stomach. Rose was sitting in the seat next to me. I could smell her familiar scent, and tried (and failed miserably) to ignore it. I attempted to focus on Jill's enthusiastic talk about going to a real high school, but after a few minutes she fell silent too. I realized I wasn't the only one who doubted the real reason we were going to Palm Springs. Though she tried to hide it, I had noticed that Jill wasn't quite sure if she was being sent away for her own safety, or because that way, Lissa could keep the throne. Eddie Castile, Jill's guardian was driving the stylish BMW van, his eyes switching from the road towards Jill, towards the road. His crush on her was painfully obvious, although he hid it pretty well from the others. Guess you just couldn't fool spirit users when it comes to those kind of things. I checked the aura's of the others, looking for something unexpected I could investigate. No such luck. I sighed. This was going to be a long, long drive.

I survived it, though. The house where I was going to stay, was pretty large, even to my standards. It looked like some sort of spooky manor. I couldn't say I immediately felt at home, though the houses owner, Clarence, seemed like a nice enough guy. Crazy but nice. And who am I to judge when it comes to crazy people? His son, Lee, appeared to be nice too. Maybe his presence would keep my stay in Palm Springs from being too boring.

I'd dumped my stuff in the guest room, and sat down, while Rose and Abe gave Clarence the information he needed to know. Jill would come over at least once a week to feed, and I would be staying here. I sat down on the couch, and Rose came over to sit next to me again. "Adrian, are you okay?" she asked. I looked at her. No, I wasn't okay. I was sad, and tired of all those feelings, and I hated the fact that she could just sit here and talk to me after she'd ripped my heart out. But of course, I didn't say that.

"Thanks for your concern, little dhampir, but as long as there's nothing in this haunted house that's scarier than vampires, I'm sure I'll be fine." I muttered. "I will die of alcohol deprivation eventually, if there isn't a liquor store nearby, but that is of later concerns."

Rose smiled at that. "Well, never expected your cause of death to be such a healthy one."

She then went over to talk to Castile, and I went outside for a smoke. My addiction to cigarettes might annoy some, but it always gave me a valid excuse to leave if I was somewhere I didn't want to be. But as I opened the door I was surprised to see two neatly dressed humans standing in the opening. One of them, a blond guy with just one eye, and an obvious addiction to hair products, had raised his fist, as if he'd been about to knock. The other one, a blond girl, I guessed she was about seventeen or eighteen years old, studied me curiously.

"So, are you guys here to convert me or sell me something?" I asked, already preparing a speech about not needing religion or new vacuum technology to be awesome.

But the girl surprised me by saying: " Mr. Ivashkov. It's nice to see you again."

My eyes shot towards her, studying her face. She was pretty, with layered dark blond hair framing a delicate face with intelligent light brown eyes, staring back at me. It was only for a second, but I thought I saw fear flicker across her features. Then, she seemed to steady herself, and met my gaze bravely. I also noticed a the light was reflected by a golden shape on her cheek. Suddenly, I was sure I'd seen those brown eyes, and the mixture of fear and determination inside them before.

" I know you. How do I know you?" I asked, still looking at her intently.

"We—" she paused, looking for the right words "We ran into each other last month. At your Court."

Now I remembered. The ' go-by-all-the-rules' alchemist who had helped rose escape. (At least, she had been very strict in all the alchemist rules, until she helped Rose escape. But I was sure she still hadn't turned into some rebel since the last time I saw her, judging by her choice of clothing.) Rose had told me about her in the spirit dreams we'd shared when she was on the run, and we were still together.

"Right. The Alchemist." I thought for a moment, trying to think of her name.

"Sydney Sage." I said, at last, remembering.

She glanced up at me, surprised that I'd remembered her name. Then, her eyes flicked towards her hair-gel covered companion. The Sage girl spoke quickly, " Keith, this is Adrian Ivashkov." Looking at me, she continued, " Adrian, this is my colleague, Keith Darnell."

Keith who appeared to be in shock, staring at me with huge eyes, frozen in fear. I idly wondered if I could make him hyperventilate just by showing my fangs, but decided against it. I did, however, hold out my hand towards him, knowing he was way too afraid to shake it. He just stared at it, probably wondering if it was possible to steal his soul, or drain his blood through touch. When he didn't attempt to move, I took out my lighter and stepped outside. " They're waiting for you. Go on in."

Keith still looked at the door as if it would swallow him, and Sage, as I 'd decided to call her from now on, looked very annoyed at her companion's lack of responsiveness. I just couldn't help teasing Keith just a little more. I leaned in towards him and added in a low Hollywood scary vampire voice " If. You. Dare..".

Then, I just slightly poked his shoulder, and walked away, doing my very best evil laugh. It quickly turned into real laughter when my vampire hearing caught him telling Sage " What was that about? He nearly attacked me!" Oh, Alchemists were such mighty fun.

_What do you think? Is it 'Historically Accurate'? (lol, get it? It's what Brayden says about Sydney's dress in the Golden Lily. Hahah! Yeahh… I didn't think that was all that funny either..) _

_Love, Number 101 _


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclamer: **__Richelle Mead owns all these amazing characters and I stole them from her. _

I found a nice smoking spot nearby, under a large palm tree, not far away from 'Clarence Manor.' I had just barely lit my cigarette, and breathed in the smoke, when an unexpected voice caused me to exhale again.

"Where are you?" Abe called, from a spot a bit closer to the house than where I stood. Oh, great. He was looking for me again. Once, this man had scared me quite a bit, by threatening to try all sorts of medieval torture techniques on me if I would even attempt to hurt his beloved Rose. But after Rose had proven to be the one who hurt me, he had degraded from frighteningly aggressive to just plain annoying. But as much as I hated to admit it, Abe Mazur was not a person one could easily ignore.

"Over here," I said, not seeing the point in yelling back, because he would hear me anyway. He walked over to me, and I leaned back against the tree. When he arrived, he studied me carefully. A brief disapproving look crossed his features, as his eyes lingered on my cigarette. I met his gaze, and, not taking my eyes away from his, brought my cigarette to my mouth and inhaled deeply. Then, I slowly exhaled, blowing my smoke in his face. He didn't get angry or irritated though. He just smirked at me, in that serpent-like_, 'I-know-something-you-don't' _way _of his._

" Were you ever coming back?" he asked.

"Didn't see the point," I replied, truthfully, keeping my voice light. I really didn't see the point of me coming here at all anymore. The promise of 'having a purpose' that Abe had used to get me here, really wasn't all that simple. Now I was here, what was it I was supposed to do that was so important? Play scrabble with Clarence? I Didn't think so. Although I was actually pretty awesome at scrabble. Maybe we could play for money, and I could buy my cigarettes with my winnings.

"The point is politeness." Responded Abe, getting me back on track. I wasn't so sure politeness would have done their impression of me much good. I could have bowed for Keith when he entered, and he would still have been terrified of me. " They don't want to meet me, especially the guy," I said, voicing my thoughts. " You should have seen his face when I ran into him at the door. I wish I'd had a cape on." The memory of Keith's terrified face made me choke back my laughter. Alchemists were usually all business and order, but a vampire only had to show his teeth, and they were hiding behind the furniture. But then I decided that was not entirely true.

" The girl at least got some nerve." I added to my earlier statement. I had actually kind of liked the Sage girl. From what I'd learned from her aura, which was mostly yellow. That meant she was one of those incredibly brainy types who always knows everything about everything. But besides the yellow, was also a mystical purple shine to her aura, which made her a lot more special. Few people had purple, and its presence always meant there was something special to the person.

Again, Abe pulled me back to the real subject of the conversation, this time by saying: "Nevertheless, they play a crucial role in your stay here- and Jill's. You know how important it is that she remain safe."

" Yeah, I get that." I replied, " And I get why she's here. What I don't get, is why _I'm _here." Of course as I expected, Abe replied to this with some extremely obvious answer about the bond, and Jill needing me close to her to get used to it. But did she, really? What was it I could do? Couldn't Jill just call me if she needed some bond-talk?

" That's what everyone says… But I'm still not sure it's necessary. I don't think she needs me close by, no matter what Rose and Lissa claim.

" You have something better to do?" Abe asked, innocently.

Okay, so now I was really annoyed. What kind of lame argument was that? "That's not the point!" I said, doing my best to refrain from yelling at him.

"That's exactly the point. You were wasting away at court, drowning in your self-pity –among other things. Here, you have a chance to be useful."

"To you." I said angrily.

I knew that I hadn't been the most productive person ever for the last month, and that I had been drinking a lot. But what did people expect? Rose had been my everything. I never loved anyone like I'd loved her. She had been my personal sun, while living in the darkness of the night. After she left, facing the darkness without her was terrifying. I had nothing but myself to hold on to, to focus on, to make sure I wasn't slipping away. And after healing Jill, things had gotten even worse. Spirit was touching my mind, making my thoughts go in strange directions. So I drank. And the darkness caused by that, the holes in my memory, at least those made sense. At least it was a kind of darkness I could recognize, one that I could hold on to…

"To yourself as well." Abe said, snapping me back to reality for the third time. This must be some new record of me tuning out during a conversation. Useful to myself how? He still hadn't told me what I was supposed to do. Since my own mind was enough confusion material for me, I decided to just ask.

"Except, you won't tell me what I'm supposed to do! Aside from Jill, what is this great task you have for me?"

"Listen. Listen and watch." He stroked his chin, and at that moment, I could totally imagine him as some kind of mafia leader in a melodramatic action movie. Then I realized he actually was just that. All he needed was some good background music. "Watch everyone- Clarence, Lee, the Alchemists, Jill and Eddie. Pay attention to every detail, and report it to me later. It may all be useful."

So, I just turned out to be a piece in this game he was playing, his scheme to do—what exactly..?

"I don't know that that really clears things up." I said.

"You have potential, Adrian. Too much potential to waste. I'm very sorry for what happened with Rose, but you have to move on. Maybe things don't make sense now, but they will later. Trust me."

I didn't know what bothered me most, the fact that I'd just scored Abe Mazur's words of wisdom, or that he, the Zemy, had just told me to trust him. '_Maybe things don't make sense now.' _ That certainly was an understatement.

We went inside in silence, which was fine by me. I'd heard enough of Abe for at least today. Then, I entered the room, where the gelhead alchemist was still leading the conversation, which had now evolved to discussing the best ways to treat an cut-out eye, after a Strigoi attack. There was a glint of a knowing smile to Abe's face, as he asked, "Where is miss Sage… She should join us."

'Miss Sage' entered shortly after. I had leaned back against the wall, having positioned myself as far away from Rose and her father as I could manage, and was all set and ready to let the chaos of my emotions take over again, when her light voice pulled me back to reality.

" How are you going to get to feedings?" She asked, looking up at me.

"By walking down the hall." I replied. I didn't feel like any other explanation was needed. Clarence did, though.

" Adrian will be staying here with me. It will be nice to have someone else in these old walls."

"Oh." Sage said, muttering something to herself I didn't quite understand.

"Hmm..?" I said, in a way of asking her what it was.

She flinched, obviously not having expected me to hear whatever she said. "Nothing, I was just thinking of a book I read." She said quickly.

"Oh." I said, before noticing something much more interesting. Bingo. I'd discovered Clarence's liquor cabinet. At least I'd have my beloved alcohol to keep me company here.

Not very long after that, Gelhead declared they all had to leave. My eyes widened in surprise when Jill flung herself at me, her fingers clinging to my shirt. I patted her shoulder, feeling a bit guilty that she cared so much about me, even after all that I'd already put her through through the bond.

"There, there, Jailbait. I'll see you again soon." I half-whispered to her.

"I wish you were coming with us." She said, voice small.

I grinned at that horrible idea. "No, you don't. Maybe the rest of them can get away with playing back-to-school, but I'd be thrown out on my first day. At least here, I won't corrupt anyone… unless it's Clarence and his liquor cabinet."

"I'll be in touch." Jill promised, and my smile wavered for a second.

" So will I." She would know how I felt every second. Our eyes met, and we exchanged one last knowing look.

Then, they went away, leaving me alone with Clarence and Lee, and at least fifteen bottles of alcohol.

_So, please tell me what you think? I was kind of worried about this chapter being too depressed, but I decided that Adrian kind of is in this part of bloodlines. Also, I need to think of something for Adrian to do, when Sydney and the others aren't over for feedings, because just him trying to get over Rose and drowning in alcohol is going to get boring eventually. Any tips and/ or reviews are super-appreciated. _


	5. Chapter 5

_Hello World. Here is another chapter that I wrote in mister Ivashkov's perspective. This one is a little more weird than usual. Can you handle that? xP _

_**Disclaimer: **__Adrian asked me to tell you to bring him a pack of cigarettes, and remind you that Richelle Mead owns Bloodlines and all its characters. :)_

I ended up playing scrabble with Clarence after all, trying to control my drunken movements while placing the letters on the board. After playing for a while I had gotten into an elaborate argument with Lee about the accuracy of the word 'butterwafflesauce' in the English language. I had thought it a glorious finding, whereas he seemed convinced it was just three words placed after each other.

"It's gé –ni –ous! It's like, that stuff, you know, that you put over waffles with butter." I half-shouted at him, convinced that this very eloquent explanation would definitely get him to agree with me.

"Butter is a word. I already doubted Butterwaffle was a correct word when you spelled it. But Butterwafflesauce certainly isn't ," he told me.

I was sure it was, though, and it would earn me 60 points, since it was on a double word value. But Lee just refused to listen, and I tried to take another sip of my drink, which, apparently was already empty. I looked into my glass, wondering where in the name of god the liquid had gone. Lee laughed at my puzzled expression, and refilled both our glasses from a bottle he had kept under the table. He hadn't been drinking as much as I had, but he was pretty far gone, too.

I'd attacked Clarence's liquor cabinet with full force on the first night. I'd started slow, by simply asking Dorothy (Clarence's housekeeper and feeding subject), to mix me a Mojito, about six o' clock. By eight, I didn't know what I was drinking anymore. But it didn't matter. As long as I didn't have to think about all those things I didn't want to think about. So I just kept drinking. And when I found the scrabble board, I had challenged Clarence, who, I suspected, hadn't even noticed we were drunk, and Lee to play with me. It all went relatively well, and we'd eventually agreed that I got half the butterwafflesauce-points after we'd spilled rum all over the dictionary in an attempt to look it up.

We continued playing, and when my turn came again, I placed my letters (which were HTUNQSR) next to the 'e' from 'sauce' to form the word 'hunters'. Clarence gasped, noticing what I'd written.

"Tamara!" He suddenly shouted.

"They slit her throat. Drained all her blood!" A haunted look came over him, as he continued speaking. "Her face. You should have seen her face. All white, like the sun-bleached animal bones she used to bring home from the desert to play with when she was a kid. And her eyes. Wide open, staring in fear at her attackers. Those monsters. How could they kill someone as innocent as her?"

I shivered at his words. Where did that come from? All I'd done was spell 'hunters' on a scrabble board. What was Clarence talking about? A girl with a slit throat?

It definitely wasn't the first time Lee had heard this story, though. He slowly walked over to Clarence, and softly placing a hand on his father's arm, he talked to him in a soothing voice. "They are not real, dad. I'm sorry about what happened to Tamara, but vampire hunters just don't exist."

"Vampire hunters?" I asked, my mind suddenly clear, despite all the alcohol, remembering what Abe had said. "_Listen. Listen and watch. Pay attention to every detail."_ This might be something important. Who was Tamara..? I wondered, but Lee already answered before I had a chance to ask.

"My dad thinks vampire hunters killed my sister. They only exist in his head, though." Lee stage-whispered at me. "Tamara was actually killed by Strigo-."

"They slit her throat!" Clarence yelled again, interrupting his son. "Strigoi don't cut throats open. You know that, right? They drink from the vein. It were vampire hunters, I tell you."

"They slit her throat?" I repeated, horrified. "That's… unbelievable. I'm sorry for your loss.." Not really knowing what else to say, I just shut up.

"Adrian!" Clarence said, looking intently at me, apparently remembering I was still there. "You have to be careful. They might be coming for you, too."

"I hope they like rum then." I said, dryly, having regained my composure. "I think I spilled some over my shirt, too." Vampire hunters who might not even be real didn't scare me that much right now.

"They are dangerous. I mean it. And you too, Lee. You two shouldn't end up like Tamara." Said Clarence, his voice dry.

"O-kay," Lee said, stretching the first syllable. "I think it's time for dad to go to bed now."

"Yeah, I'll go get some sleep, too." My hangover was going to kill me tomorrow. I told them goodnight, and walked over to my room and collapsed on my bed, and immediately passed out, not giving another thought to Clarence, and his vampire hunters.

The sound of something outside woke me up the next morning. A quick glance at the clock on my bedroom wall told me it was 8:23 AM. I groaned. Way too early for me to be awake. But together with me, my hangover seemed to wake up too, my head suddenly hurting like hell. I slowly opened my eyes. Where was I? It took me a while to even remember I was at Clarence's, and that this was my new room. The light coming from outside reminded me I was in Palm Springs.

The bright sunlight streaming in from the only half closed curtains, which might be disturbing to hung-over humans, was so much more painful for hung-over moroi. I stumbled toward the window, grasping my head, and attempted to close it, almost falling over. Then, I stumbled back to my bed, and collapsed on the sheets again, placing my arm over my eyes. I felt nauseous too, now. I attempted to fall asleep again, but failed miserably. My headache was keeping me awake. I decided to go look for an aspirin, to ease my pain a little.

I got up, and dragged myself to the kitchen. There, I saw Dorothy already busily cleaning up the mess we'd made yesterday night. When she saw me, her eyes widened, and she just stared at me for a couple of seconds. I vaguely wondered what was going on, until I realized I the only thing I was wearing, were the boxers I'd been sleeping in.

"I look kind of hot, don't I?" I asked her, unembarrassed. "I usually prefer silk underwear, but this palm tree pattern just seemed more fitting."

She quickly looked away. " What can I help you with, mister Ivashkov?"

"Do you have some painkillers for me? Any kind would be good." I asked.

"Yes, of course. I'll take them up to your room, Mister Ivashkov."

I went back to my bed after that, in the hope of passing out again, which I didn't, but sure enough, after a few minutes, Dorothy arrived, with the painkillers and a glass of water. I took three of them at once, hoping to stop the pain sooner. After she'd left, undoubtedly off to some exciting mission to go clean something, I was left to my own misery once more. I really felt terrible. I prayed the painkillers would work soon. I still lay on my bed, arm over my face again. And of course that was the moment all kinds of unwelcome thoughts decided to come crashing into my brain, going into a frenzy, while my mind wasn't even ready to perceive basics like getting dressed.

It started with something like: 'What am I going to do today?' and then 'What am I going to do any other day that I'm here?' Which was followed by Abe giving me the assignment to 'listen and watch'. The memory of Abe was followed by images of his daughter, Rose. Me kissing her. Me biting into her skin, tasting her sweet on her blood. Her soft hair against my cheek. Her being brave enough to come and have dinner with my family. Her betrayal, the post-sex shine in her aura after she'd slept with Dimitri. This was followed by memories of the horrible time at court, without her. My father being annoyed at my sadness, telling me I was being pathetic and it had been a worthless relationship, that I could never have been with such a lowly creature as a Dhampir anyway, and that it would have ruined the Ivashkov's reputation. Me telling him I didn't give a damn about that lame reputation of his. Him cutting me off from the Ivashkov money, only giving me this miniscule allowance. How my mother wasn't there to stop him from doing it. How I didn't even know where my own mother was. Imagining my beautiful mother, graceful Danielle Ivashkov, locked up behind steel bars almost caused me physical pain. Thinking caused me pain. But on it went, each agonizing picture, each painful memory was replayed before my closed eyes, in high definition. Was I going crazy? Was this spirit affecting my mind, making me lose grip on reality? I decided to test that theory, by opening my eyes. If I still saw the blackness, even with them open, I would know for sure. But as I opened them, the colors of the world outside the black was still there, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. I was still here. And the painkillers were finally working.

With my headache reduced to only a dull throbbing, I actually got dressed, and went to the living room to watch some TV. Most of it wasn't all that interesting, but watching sixteen and pregnant on MTV at least reminded me that there actually were problems I didn't have. I spent a few hours like that, sprawling on the sofa, and fixing myself some snacks (or rather, having Dorothy fix me some snacks) and got an already opened bottle of brandy from the cabinet. Nothing worked better against a hangover than more alcohol.

Then, after spending a while like that, Dorothy came in, and spoke in her high, clear voice, "There are some visitors for you, mister Ivashkov.'

I looked over the arm-rest of the sofa, to see Jill, and Sage the Alchemist walk in. I was surprised at how glad I was to see them, and turned off the TV. I looked them over, noticing that even though Jill had changed, Sage still wore her Amberwood uniform.

"Sage, aren't you guys supposed to have uniforms? This looks like what you usually wear," I teased.

"Cute." She replied, appearing to work very hard to look disinterested, but I noticed a hint of a smile cross her features.

"Careful, you almost smiled." I said with a mock bow. "Do you guys want one?" I picked up the bottle of brandy again.

"It's in the middle of the afternoon." Sage said disapprovingly. Right. Healthy lifestyle police was here.

"I've got a wicked hangover," I told them, raising my full glass at them in a mock toast. "This is just the thing to cure it." I leaned back against the couch, taking a sip.

"Adrian, I need to talk to you," said Jill, voice serious.

I instantly sensed something was wrong by the tone in her voice, and now that I realized it, I could see it in her aura too. Something was worrying her, and closer observation of her features revealed that she looked almost.. sick.

"What's up, Jailbait" I asked, worried.

…

_Dun-dun-dun. It's a cliffhanger. Well, not really because you all know what's going to happen, but anyway. This chapter got too long. I hope you liked it, let me know if you have any suggestions/ comments/ crushes on Adrian. I have to admit that I enjoyed writing drunk Adrian playing scrabble a little too much. Writing him is just so much fun, because I get easily distracted, and so does he, and he has these horrible mood swings, so I can make him think/ say almost anything at random moments. _

_Ps. Wow. I finished this exactly at 0:00, but it's 0:01 now :D_


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** _Richelle Mead owns Bloodlines. Surprise._

Jill glanced up at Sage, looking uncomfortable. "Would you mind…?"

The Alchemist girl got the hint. "Sure. I'll just… I'll just go outside again." She seemed a bit annoyed at being left out, and I couldn't really blame her. I doubted if I would even have left if I was in her place. Maybe I would even have hid behind something to listen to the discussion. But not an alchemist. I heard the door close behind her as she left the living room.

"Okay, I'll take a wild guess and say this has something to do with the bond." I said. I couldn't think of anything else that would be urgent enough for her to drag Sage out here.

"You're right." Jill nodded. "I got kicked out of my first class today."

I just stared at her. Sweet Jill, innocent Jill, kicked out of a class? That was impossible. "What the hell did you do? You didn't use water magic on your teacher's coffee, did you?" I asked, recalling all the reasons that I had been sent out of classes when I still went to school.

"I got kicked out," Jill said, slowly, "for having a hangover."

My eyes got even wider. "But you don't even drink!" I exclaimed. "If you did, we had already became drinking buddies by now." I made a joke about it, but if Jill really was drinking, I wasn't sure if I would approve, regardless of my own not-so-healthy lifestyle.

Jill obviously didn't think it was funny either. "I don't drink." She said, "but you do."

"Yes. I do, obviously," I said, looking at the brandy on the table. "But I don't see how you can get kicked out for having a hangover without drinking."

"But I did have a hangover. A horrible one at that. All the symptoms were there. A horrible headache, nausea, everything."

"But…" Then I understood. That was how I'd felt this morning. And what I felt, that was what Jill felt, too. "Oh. The bond."

"Yes." She said. "I know I don't have any right to ask this from you, especially because you've sacrificed so much for me already. But.."

"I need to stop drinking." I finished her sentence. "I understand. You need to follow your classes at Amberwood." I was suddenly resolved to do it. I could drink less, if it would help Jill. At least during school days. That was why I was here, too. I needed to be there for her. Being in palm springs couldn't be any easier for her than it was for me. It was probably harder for her, since she had classes, the responsibility of staying hidden and lying to everyone about who she was.

"It's okay, jailbait. You don't need to feel bad. I'll stop drinking right now." I grabbed the bottle of brandy, and poured its content into the porcelain flowerpot on the table.

"Thank you." She sighed in relief. "Although you didn't need to kill Clarence's flowers to prove it to me."

No, but the brandy would have been hard to resist when she'd leave. Especially with the bottle open and all. "The flowers didn't match the carpet anyway." I said lightly. Not drinking was going to be difficult. Here in this house was nothing to do but watch TV, and Lee would be leaving soon, and I realized it was going to be lonely. Clarence would be there, but he was hardly the kind of company I felt comfortable in. I could probably have some good conversations with him when spirit takes over my mind, since he was just as crazy sometimes. But I didn't want that. I wanted my own place.

Maybe Sage could fix it for me. I got her to talk to me for a second, and noticed Jill and Lee walking off together. "What was that all about?" I asked Sage.

"Oh, we thought lee might be able to help Jill with her problems." She said. "Since he can relate."

I was fairly sure Lee didn't die and got brought back by a spirit user, and after that shared a bond with an alcoholic moroi who caused him to be hungover during classes without having drunk anything.

So I just asked "Problems?"

"Yeah, you know. Adjusting to living with humans."

"Oh. That" I said. I was sure Lee enjoyed 'relating' to Jill very much. I'd noticed in Lee's aura that he was quite attracted to Jill. Their age difference was pretty big, so I wasn't sure if I approved. Then, I decided to worry about it later, and focused on the delicate features of the Alchemist girl. I took out a cigarette, and lit it. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about.

She looked up at me, surprised that I could ask her something non-Jill related, her brown eyes seemed lighter in the sun. She really was pretty. If she hadn't been so stiff and scared of moroi, I might have actually found her attractive. But I certainly wasn't going to tell her that. "I need you to get me out of here.

"Out of Palm Springs?" She asked.

"No, out of this place." I gestured around me. "It's like living in a retirement home. Clarence is taking a nap right now, and he eats at five. It's so boring."

She made no attempt to hide she was rolling her eyes this time. "You've only been here for two days."

"And that's more than enough. The only thing keeping me alive is that he keeps a hefty supply of liquor on hand. But at the rate I'm going, that'll be gone by the weekend." The words were out, before I remembered I wasn't supposed to drink that much anymore, which left nothing to keep me alive at all. "Jesus Christ, I'm climbing the walls." Then I noticed the delicate golden cross on her neck. Oops. "Oh, sorry, no offence to Jesus."

"What about Lee? He's here, right? She asked.

"Yes." I agreed. "Sometimes. Lee had been here most of the time. "But he's busy with.. hell, I don't know. School stuff. He's going back to Los Angeles tomorrow, and that'll be another boring night for me. Besides.. I looked around to check if someone was listening. "Lee's nice enough, but he not.. well, he's not into having fun. Not the way I am.

"That might be a good thing." Great, there we go again.

"No morality lectures, Sage. And hey, like I said, I like him okay, but he's not here enough. When he is, he keeps to himself. And he's always checking himself out in the mirror, even more than I do. I heard him worrying about gray hair the other day." It was ridiculous really.

She looked almost as bored as one could manage whilst surrounded by people of whom she believed would start drinking her blood any minute, until a look of panic crossed her features.

"You don't want to enroll at Amberwood, do you?"

"And play 21 jump street with the rest of you?" The idea was ridiculous. Plus, instead of the cop, I'd probably turn out to be the guy with the drugs. And then I'd get kicked out again. "No thank you."

She obviously hadn't seen the movie, or the series. "Twenty-one what?"

"Never mind" I said, putting out the cigarette again. The cigarettes were Clarences, so I had borrowed them without asking, but they turned out to be menthol. Gross. "I need my own place, okay. You guys make things happen. Can't you get me some swank bachelor's pad like Keith has downtown, so I can party with all the rich vacationers? Drinking alone is sad and pathetic. I need people. Even human people." As I talked, I convinced myself even more of my desperate need of an apartment. Sage didn't seem that convinced, though.

"I'm not authorized to do that. You aren't.. Well, you aren't really my responsibility. We're just taking care of Jill – and Eddie, since he's her bodyguard.

Unauthorized-my ass. Okay.. if that didn't work.. "What about a car? Can you do that?"

She just shook her head.

"What about your car? What if I drop you guys off at the school and then borrow it for a while.

"No." This time she didn't even bother with 'unauthorized'.

I threw my hands up in exasperation. I was never ever getting out of here. "You're killing me, Sage."

"I'm not doing anything."

That was exactly the point. "Exactly my point" I said.

"Look." She replied, sounding slightly annoyed. "I told you. You're not my responsibility." And she was all about responsibility. "Talk to Abe if you want things changed. Isn't he the reason you're here?"

Huh? Abe hadn't told her anything, had he? "What do you know about that?" I asked.

She suddenly looked sort of.. guilty..? She started talking at high speed. "I mean, he's the one who brought you guys here and made the arrangements with Clarence, right. She looked at me expectantly.

"Yes. But Abe wants me to stay in this tomb. If I got my own place, we'd have to keep it a secret from him.

She scoffed. "Then I'm definitely not helping, even if I could. You couldn't pay me to cross Abe."

Ugh. She was such an annoying teacher's pet-good girl. I was going to explain to her how rewarding and, most of all, fun it was to go against Abe's will, when she abruptly turned and walked away.

What a fun conversation. I was stuck here forever. "That went well." I muttered to myself, lighting a cigarette again. I inhaled, and then coughed loudly. Right. Damn you, menthol cigarettes.

_Merry Christmas everybody! _

_I probably won't be updating this story for a week or two, because I'm going on vacation with my family, and I'm not allowed to bring my computer. Sorry! I'll pick up this story after that, though._

_Ps. Thank you guys for all the lovely reviews. It makes me so happy to hear what you think of the story._

_Love, Number 101_


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Richelle Mead owns Bloodlines, because she just does. **

I lay on the soft green sofa, staring up at the grey and white dots on Clarence's ceiling. Stating I was bored, would not do my current state justice. The world around me seemed as dull as that pattern on the ceiling. And I couldn't even drink to make the time go faster. I just stared, and stared, until my vision became blurry, and the dots I was looking at started to form shapes. A moon and a star. A fish. A cat with large eyes and a mischievous grin, reminding me of Alice in wonderland. A bottle of gin. And a rose.

I barely felt the madness of spirit sweep over me, like a gust of wind brushing my mind. Then her face appeared before me. Her brown eyes glimmered in the soft light, and I drank in her beautiful, familiar features as she leaned in closer, her long, curly hair brushing against my skin and her lips moving in slowly toward mine. Just before they touched, though, something stopped me. Subconsciously, I'd started to breath in her familiar scent. Or rather, did not breath in, because it wasn't there. I blinked in confusion, and when my eyes opened again, Rose had disappeared. Instead, there was my father. He'd appeared where Rose had stood before, way too close to me. He stared off into the distance, like he wasn't seeing me at all.

"Dad?" I spoke, finally.

He just kept staring, gaze angry.

"What's going on?" I asked, again.

He remained silent.

"Why do you keep ignoring me?" I was desperate now. So many times, had I wished my father would just forget that I existed, so he wouldn't give me hell for living the life I lived. But now he was actually ignoring me..

"Danielle" My father suddenly spoke, "Why did you have to protect him? We could have just let him get locked up, and we could've stayed together. The name of the Ivashkov's could have remained almost intact, everybody already knew our son was worthless. "

I noticed that he was staring intently at one spot on the wall, almost as if he was looking at someone. And then I realized, he probably was. He was seeing my mother. He was talking to her. And I was seeing only him. And he didn't acknowledge me, and talked about me like I wasn't there, which meant he probably didn't see me either. It was confusing. Who was real, and who wasn't? If my mother was really there, then, what was wrong with me that I didn't see her? And what if I wasn't really there, and their interaction was real? Or was my father just an illusion? I'd just heard him speak. My head began to spin again. God, I really didn't need alcohol to make myself crazy. My father remained still after that, eyes frozen in an almost emotionless expression.

"Goodnight, dad." I murmured, and after a while, I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up, my head felt surprisingly clear. My father had disappeared, and I could think straight again, which seemed like a gift from the gods to me. I got up to play some pool. I didn't really have anyone to play with, so I just played with myself. Needing to take my mind of the spirit-induced 'visions' of last night, I dreamed about having my own place. If I had that, I could throw parties, and maybe even get to know some hot girls. Back at court, I had had quite a group of cute girls that always seemed willing to come with me, wherever I wanted to go, to just put it nicely. But here, I didn't have anyone to even remotely flirt with. Well.. except maybe Sage, someone of whom I was pretty sure I scared the hell out of. The thoughts about pretty girls inevitably led to Rose. Rose had been special, more than pretty. Straight out beautiful. Seeing her face last night had just reminded me of that. Just as I lined out another shot on the pool table, I heard a knock on the door. Before I could stop myself, I already had irrational hopes of seeing Rose's face. But of course it wasn't her.

"Oh." I said disappointedly , as Sydney walked in, while I knocked the red ball into the hole. "It's you."

"You were expecting someone else?" She obviously caught on to my disappointment, because she gave me a pointed look. "Am I interrupting your social calendar?" She glanced around the empty room, giving me a glimpse of the golden flower, a lily, I now noticed, on her cheek. "I don't want to keep you from the mob of fans beating down your door.

I was quick to reply, telling something close to what I'd been thinking earlier.

"Hey, a guy can hope. I mean, it's not impossible that a car full of scantily clad sorority girls might break down and need my help."

"That's true," she replied, surprising me for not ignoring my comment entirely, like I'd expected her to. "Maybe I can put a sign out front that says 'ATTENTION ALL GIRLS: FREE HELP HERE'"

I considered it. "'ATTENTION ALL HOT GIRLS', I then corrected. Didn't want some obese grandma to ask me for help.

"Right," She said, while I continued studying her. She had crossed her arms, and her hip moved sideways. "That is an important distinction." I then noticed what she was wearing. Like always, her clothing was super-neat and seemed like something you'd wear at a job interview. At least her dark jeans were sort of tight fitting. Ooh. How daring.

"Speaking of hot," I said, "I like that uniform." I enjoyed teasing her so much.

She rolled her eyes, and swayed her hip to the other side. She was super skinny for a human, and I was almost surprised the simple movement didn't break any bones.

"Are you the only one here?" She asked.

"Nah. Clarence is around, doing… I don't know, old man stuff. And I think lee's fixing that loch before he heads back to LA." I'd watched him for a while, and I had noticed something strange. "He seems upset that he needs to use tools. He keeps thinking the strength of his own hands should be more than enough."

She actually smiled at that. It lit up her face, and I noticed again how pretty she was. "I don't suppose you offered help?"

"Sage," I said, using my most formal tone. "These hands don't do manual labor." I showed what they did do, by knocking in a blue ball, this time. Talking to Sage, and teasing her was pretty fun. A lot more fun than I had had alone. "You want to play?"

She seemed surprised by this offer. "What? With you?"

"No, with Clarence." I said, sarcastically.

She stared at me, confusion clear on her face. Sometimes she made me wonder how someone that smart could be so stupid.

"Yes. Of course with me." I sighed.

"No." She said. "I need to talk to you about Jill."

I froze.. I hadn't drunk anything. Well except if you counted those liquor filled chocolates I ate, but how could I have known they contained alcohol? Had something bad happened to her? Then, I assumed my not-like-I-care-attitude, and continued playing pool.

"She wasn't sick today." I said bitterly. And I'd paid for that by having to see visions of my father being disappointed in me. If I wanted my father to be disappointed in me, I could just call him, and he'd be up for the task anytime. No need for spirit to show me.

Sydney continued speaking. "No, well, not in the same way. She got sick out in the sun during PE. I'm going to see Keith after this, to see if we can get a medical excuse." She paused, "But that's not why I'm here. There's a guy who likes Jill. A human guy."

I didn't really see the problem. Yes, Jill couldn't date a human, but that was easily solved. "Have Castile rough him up."

She leaned back against the wall. "That's the thing. I asked him to. Well, not rough him up, exactly. It's Eddie's roommate. I asked Eddie to tell him to back off and make up some reason for staying away from Jill- like that's she's too young. You understand why it's important, right?"

"Yup." I said. "I'm with you there, Sage. But I still don't see the problem."

"Eddie won't do it. He says he doesn't think Jill should be denied the chance to date, and go to dances. That it's okay if she and Micah hang out, so long as it doesn't get serious."

This surprised me even more. I was pretty sure Sydney hadn't noticed Eddie's big fat crush on Jill, but I definitely had. His aura was dripping with affection whenever he was around her. "That is weird. I mean, I get the logic, and there's something to it. She shouldn't be forced into isolation while she's here.I'm just surprised Castile came up with it."

She didn't ask why, specifically it was strange that Castile thought of that, saving me from having to explain feelings that weren't mine.

"Yeah, but that's a hard concept to live by. Where do you draw the 'casual' line? Honestly, I get this feeling Eddie just didn't want to confront Micah—the roommate. Which is crazy, because Eddie doesn't seem like the type to be afraid of anything. What is there about Micah that would make Eddie so uneasy?"

"Is Micah some big hulking guy?" Castile wouldn't be afraid of him, would he? He was a guardian for fuck's sake.

"No," She said. "He's built, I guess. Good at sports. Real y friendly and easygoing—not the type you'd have to be afraid would turn on you if you warned him away from your sister."

"Then you can talk to him. Or just talk to Jailbait and explain things to her." I knocked in the ball triumphantly at having solved her problem.

"That was my plan." She said, I just wanted to make sure you'd back me. Jill listens to you, and I thought it'd be easier if she knew you agreed with me. Not that I even know how she feels. For all I know, this is all overkill."

It was nice that she'd actually came to me for help. It made me feel a little less useless. "It can't hurt to be too careful with her." I said. Jill had, after all, died.

"Thank you," She said, actually smiling at me now. I smiled back.

"Now, will you play a round with me?

I don't really-

The door opened, and Lee walked in, holding a screwdriver.

_To be continued…_

_Hey you guys! I'm back, with another chapter. I hope you liked it! Next chapter will be a display of Adrian Ivashkov chivalry. That's going to be fun!_

_For you who read bloodlines, I have a question. Do you think Adrian actually slept with those moroi girls in LA? It is implied in the book, but I'm not really sure if I should let that happen. Tell me what you find more Adrian. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Richelle mead owns everything Bloodlines-related. **

"Hey, Sydney." Lee said, noticing her presence, "I thought I saw your car out there. He glanced around. Is, uh.. Jill with you? He glanced around, obviously excited at the thought of seeing her.

"Not today." Sage said. Lee's face fell a bit. Then, she seemed to realize something, and suddenly asked, "Lee, have you ever dated a human girl?]

I arched an eyebrow. Sage was interested in Moroi? "Are you asking him out, Sage?"

She scowled. "No!" She was obviously appalled by the idea. If I were Lee, I'd have been insulted. Or at least have pretended to be insulted.

But Lee just thought about her question. "No, not really." I could tell he was lying from his aura. Sage didn't seem to notice he wasn't telling the truth, and I had to give him one thing, he was a good liar. I briefly wondered what kind of relationship he had had with a human, and how it ended, and decided to inquire later. But the next words Lee spoke, distracted me from this train of thought.

"LA's a big place, though. There are Moroi girls around, if you know where to look."

"Oh?" I said. Moroi girls meant finally some fun for me too.

Sage's thoughts were strictly business again. "Well, that would make your dating situation much easier than Jill's."

I tuned out while Sydney recapped the Micah and Jill story, while I focused on what was important in the Adrian Ivashkov universe. Like, say, hot Moroi girls. I preferred ones that didn't take too much… persuasion. We could party in the city first, and then maybe later.. party more privately.

"Can we go back to the part about Moroi girls hanging out in LA?" I asked. "Can you direct me to some of the… oh, let's say, more open-minded ones?"

Lee ignored me, and instead directed his next question at Sage.

"This might seem kind of weird … but I mean, I wouldn't mind asking Jill out.

WHAT? Pure anger filled me, and I turned my gaze to Lee. How DARE he think about Jill like that. I'd seen he liked her in his aura, but I'd definitely never expected this!

"What, do you mean like on a _date_?" I stretched the last word, making sure my anger was clear in my voice. "You son of a bitch! She's only fifteen."

Lee looked little fazed by my outburst, and Sage studied me curiously.

"Adrian," she said, "I'm guessing Lee's definition of a date is a little different than yours."

She meant _her _definition of date- which was probably a cup of coffee while discussing Shakespeare, was different from mine.

"Sorry Sage. You've got to trust me when it comes to dating definitions. Last I checked, you aren't an expert in social matters. I mean, when was the last time you even went on a date?"

She ignored the question, and instead turned to Lee.

"But, there is an age difference." She studied him.

"There is," said Lee. I'm nineteen. Not a huge gap, but big enough. I shouldn't have said anything."

No, he shouldn't have, and he'd better understand that.

"Why would you want to ask her out?" Asked Sage. "I mean, she's great. But are you just doing this to distract her from Micah and give her a safe dating alternative? Or do you, um, like her?"

"Of course he likes her!" I said quickly. I knew it was true, but I still wanted to make absolutely sure that my beloved Jill wasn't perceived as some sort of charity case.

I noticed from the corner of my eye that Sage was studying me intently again, her lips slightly curved upwards in what resembled a smile. The tiny difference from her usual frown made her face light up, and it struck me once again how pretty she was, and I started noticing the way the slight curves of her too skinny body... STOP right there. I told myself. Ugh, why did I always get so easily distracted. Maybe if I found some girls in LA, I wouldn't have to keep thinking like that about Sage. I started to think I was suffering from a severe case of sexual frustration.

Then, Lee spoke, reminding me that we were having a discussion about Jill's love life. I really thought it was a bad idea for her to date Lee. He was too old, and Jill too young and he'd pressure her into things she didn't want. Plus, he had those weird things, like when he repaired that lock. And I sensed something in his aura. It was one of the few aura's I couldn't see very clearly, but still there was something about it that felt wrong in a vaguely familiar way.

"I like her. I've only talked to her a couple times, but … well, I'd really like to get to know her better."

I scoffed. Everyone knew what a nineteen year old guy meant by 'get to know her better', right?

Sage obviously didn't, though, since she shot me a glare that could have killed me right on the spot."Once again," She said, "I think you guys have different definitions for the same words."

I pointed out the obvious, as I seemed to be doing a lot today. "All guys mean the same thing when they say they 'want to get to know a girl better'." Then I continued, undisturbed by her annoyed expression.

"You're a well-bred young lady, so I understand why you'd be too innocent to understand. Good thing you've got me to interpret."

She turned away from me, to face Lee. "I think it's fine if you go out with her."

I felt like hitting something. This was Jill we were talking about. Fifteen year old Jill! Was everybody in this room stupid?

"Assuming she'd even be interested." Said Lee.

"I bet she would," Said Sage. Yep, everybody here was apparently stupid.

"So you're just going to let her go off alone?" I asked. They wouldn't be too dumb to see that that would be a problem, right?

"Well, she can't even leave campus." Sage said, face thoughtful. "Not without me."

She was going to get to come along, and watch their date? "Whoa, if you get to come along as a chaperone, so do I." That way, I could watch Lee, and murder him right then and there when he made any move on Jill in a way she didn't want him to. Or in a way _I _didn't want him to.

"If we both do, then Eddie will want to as well. Doesn't sound like much of a date."

I wanted to start to point out that it not letting it be a much of a date what exactly the reason I wanted to come along, when I realized it wouldn't really help my case. Instead, I got an amazing idea.

"So? Think of it less of a date than a faux-family outing. One that will entertain me while protecting her virtue."

She actually put her hands on her skinny hips, and turned towards me again. I smiled back at her annoyed glare. "Adrian, we're focusing on Jill here. This isn't about your personal entertainment."

"Not true," I said. This was suddenly getting more fun by the second. "Everything is about my personal entertainment." I spread my arms in a wide gesture, forgetting that I was still holding the pool cue. "The world is my stage. Keep it up- you're becoming a star performer." I almost sang out the words.

I enjoyed seeing how lee glanced between us with a helpless look just a little too much. After all, he deserved it for hitting on Jill. "Do you guys want to be alone?" He asked.

"Sorry." Said Sage. I felt no need to apologize whatsoever.

"Look." Said Lee. "I like her. If it means bringing the whole group so I can be with her, that's fine."

Sydney finally agreed. "Maybe it's better this way," I mused. "Maybe if we do more things as a group—aside from her feedings—she won't be in danger of wanting to go out with a human guy."

I was excited about going out with all of them. "This is kind of what I wanted before, just more of a social life."

"If you want to get out more," Said Lee, apparently desperate to get on my good side again, "you should come back to LA with me tonight. I'll be back here after class tomorrow anyway, so it'd just be a quick trip."

Now I was even more excited. Partying and girls were within reach. "Will you introduce me to those girls?" I asked Lee.

"Unbelievable." I heard Sage mutter, just before the door opened. Then, gelhead Keith entered the room. I definitely didn't like that guy. Besides the fact that he was scared of us and just ignored me, he got an plain ugly aura, he sneakily showed up in the house when he thought we didn't know he was there. Like yesterday evening. I was sure he'd been in the here, because I'd stolen the pack of cigarettes he hid in the pocket inside his jacket. He probably lied about smoking.

"Sydney, What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I had to talk to Adrian." Said Sage, voice clear, though sounding a bit nervous. "Did you get my message? I tried calling earlier."

"I've been busy." He said, voice cold. "Let's talk. In private."

"Sure," Said Sage. I got the feeling she didn't like to talk to him in private at all. "I.. I was just leaving anyway.

"Wait," Said Lee. "What about-" I quickly whispered to him to shut up. Gelhead wouldn't approve of the group outing, that was one thing I was sure of. Sage shot me a grateful look, and we all said goodbye after that, except for Gelhead, who ignored us completely.

As they exited the room I turned towards Lee. "Now let's talk girls."

* * *

_Hello fanfiction world! I just finished this, and it is the middle of the night here in Amsterdam. I miss my sleep for you guys, so if you're reading this, the least you can do is write me a review with what you thought of this chapter.. (:_

_Thanks to all of you who already wrote me a review, and superamazingivashkovthanks to all of you who helped by answering my question previous week. I haven't really decided what will happen yet, but I'm sure it'll work out eventually. And yes, I'll try to keep it T-rated, which is going difficult with such a sex-bomb as Adrian Ivashkov himself. _

_Oh, and there is something else I've been wondering about. (WATCH OUT SPOILER FOR END OF BLOODLINES HERE.)_

_ How can Adrian not have known that Lee was a strigoi, is brought back by a spirit user and even killed people? I'd say at least some of those things must be visible in his aura. But in the story, he obviously doesn't know any of those things. Which is strange if you ask me. I've just made up that his aura isn't clear to Adrian, but why that would be I don't really know. Seeing auras is next to walking dreams, Adrian's strongest power, and I never heard anyone mention anything about him not seeing brought back Strigoi aura's. I'd figure he would have used it against Dimitri if he couldn't see his aura anymore. Well, I guess it doesn't really matter, but since all of you were so helpful last week, maybe one of you has the solution to this._

_Love, your rambling Number 101_


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: **Richelle Mead owns Bloodlines, like I told you eight times already. And I stole exactly one sentence out of Knive Party's song 'Internet Friends.' I think I should mention that too. :)

Lee not only promised to take me to LA with him, but he would also introduce me to his 'friends.' And by friends I mean easy but hot Moroi girls. This made me like him a little bit more again, but that didn't change the fact that his dating-with-Jill-thing had about a 68% risk factor of me showing up in his dreams with a chainsaw to chop his head off. (That way, I could kill him a few times _without _him actually dying, before getting down to the real business..)

Anyway, I was in an overall good mood. I flicked open my personalized Zippo lighter, with the Ivashkov crest on it to light my cigarette. The Zippo had been one of the few gifts my father had given me that I'd actually liked, even though it probably just had been to remind me of responsibility for the family name.

I suddenly heard voices coming from inside. "… You can either get someone above us to issue a note to the school or you can give her ice baths after gym class. I really don't care what you do, but maybe it'll keep you busy enough that you'll stop coming over here unannounced and throwing yourself at creatures of darkness."

"You are unbelievable," I heard sage speak. She sounded upset.

"I'm looking out for your soul," Gelhead replied. "It's the least I can do for your dad. Too bad you aren't more like your sisters." And with those words, he started his car, and drove away.

Sage had kicked the gravel. It seemed way out of character for her to do something that aggressive, but from what I'd heard, gelhead had just earned his Major Asshole Degree. If I hadn't managed to piss her off this much yet, I knew it'd take a lot to get Sydney Sage this angry. But of course, the old her returned quickly. The little stones just barely hit her car, and she winced. "Sorry."

I almost couldn't stop myself from laughing. Did she seriously just apologize to the car? "Would he accuse you of being evil for talking to inanimate objects?" I wondered.

" Where did you come from?" She asked.

" Other door, I went out to smoke, and overheard the commotion." I explained. Maybe she would stop ignoring my questions if I answered hers.

"It's rude to eavesdrop." She told me.

"It's rude to be an asshole like that." I nodded to the place where Keith's car had just been. "Are you going to be able to get Jill out of class?" If she wouldn't be, I could stage a gym class prison break to save Jill from having to endure the sun, and save me from dying of boredom.

She sighed. "Yeah, I should be able to. It'll just take a little longer while I get some Alchemist to be our fake parents. Would've been a lot faster if Keith had done it."

I looked at her for a moment, and then said, " Thanks for looking out for her, Sage. You're okay." Then I added jokingly "For a human."

She just managed to stop herself from laughing. "Thanks."

But that wasn't enough for me. "You can say it too, you know."

"Say what?"

Why did it feel like she was always asking me to state the obvious. " That I'm okay … for a vampire.

She shook her head. " You'll have a hard time getting any alchemist to say that." She hesitated, and then added. "But I can say that you're okay for a irreverent party boy with occasional moments of brilliance."

"Brilliant?" My smile widened. " You think I'm brilliant?" That was positively the nicest thing anyone had said to me since Rose and I broke up, and I wasn't going to let it go. "You hear that, world? Sage says I'm brilliant.

"That's not what I said." She protested.

I dropped my cigarette and gave her one of my trademark devil-may-care grins. "Thanks for the ego boost." I sang, "I'm going to tell Clarence and Lee all about your high opinion. I skipped inside, just hearing her call after me "Hey, I didn't…" Before I shut the door.

"Lee! Clarence! Sage just told me I'm occasionally brilliant." I yelled through the living room.

"Well, you better get your shiny brilliance on then, because we're going to LA." Lee told me.

" You blocked me on Facebook… and now you're going to die!" I yelled along with the dubstep track playing in the cool club Lee'd brought me to. I was in the middle of the dancefloor, with two pretty Moroi girls. One of them was blond, the other one had curly light brown hair, and big breasts for Moroi standards.

We kept dancing, and our bodies thrust together in wild movements, until a slow track came on. The sad lovesong reminded me of a person I definitely didn't want to think about. I moved my mouth towards the blond Moroi girl's ear to talk to her over the loud music.

"Love, I'm going to the bar to get a drink. Join me?"

She nodded, eagerly, and slid onto a bar stool besides me. I ordered a martini, and she asked for a beer. The yellow liquid contrasted with her bubblegum pink nail polish. Her eyes were clear blue, which meant they couldn't remind me of Rose. Except, everything reminded me of Rose. Time to get rid of that.

"What's your name?" Asked the brunette, who appeared to have followed us to the bar.

"Jet. My name is Jet." I said, my low voice just loud enough for them to hear. Then, I took a sip of my martini, and let my eyes meet hers. "Baby, do you always look this pretty, or is that just tonight?"

She leaned toward me. "If you didn't look so good yourself, I would have hit you for using such a lame pick up line on me. "

"Well, my good looks give me a free pass to do a few more things." I smiled at her.

The blonde girl giggled softly.

Six alcoholic beverages later, I texted Lee that I wasn't going to be leaving the club with him.

…

The two girls I'd been dancing with turned out to live together, and they had invited me to their place to have a ' private after party' with them. Which meant dancing to loud radio music, and drinking cheap alcohol. And also making out with them on the couch. They had brought me here in their tiny pink Citroën. Their apartment was small and messy, but it had a large bedroom, and a soft plush couch. It was next to a big hotel, and it had a small balcony, from where you could see the buildings high in the city. Not that I was paying much attention to architecture.

I traced the neck of the blonde girl, whose name turned out to be Krissy, with my lips, and she moaned softly. Then, our lips met again. Meanwhile, the brunette, Carla, was dancing in the middle of the room. She slowly took of her shirt, revealing a black, lacy bra. I pulled away from Krissy's mouth to take another sip of my vodka-red bull. I'd better be drunk enough for Jill not to see this, I remember thinking, just before Krissy unzipped her short dress, and let it fall to the ground. From that moment, everything was just a blur of lust and alcohol.

I looked at the still, naked form of Krissy next to me, and listened to her breathing. I slowly left the bed, trying not to wake her up, and put my clothes on. The clock in the living room showed that it was 3:48 am. I walked over to the balcony, and stared up at the sky. All the stars seemed positioned to form the same shape. A million shimmering roses in velvet black. I silently cursed them all. In this strange house, with strange girls, they made me feel more lonely than ever before.

* * *

_Hey, people of the internet._

_So, Adrian slept with the Moroi girls. Hope you don't hate me for making him do that, and that you're not disappointed in Adrian. He's just in a really bad place right now. And the ending is maybe a little too melodramatic, but who cares. Just see it as an example of Adrian-ish mood swings.._

_Also, I wanted to say thank you for the reviews again. Especially to Pyro, because you always reply to my questions in such great detail. I can't send you a private message, but I just wanted to say thanks because you are really helping me with this story. _

_Love, Number 101_


	10. Chapter 10

I didn't want to lie down next to Krissy again. It just seemed wrong to wake up together with her, the way I dreamed to wake up with Rose. I'd always found it uncomfortable to wake up next to a girl after a one night stand. It just felt too.. intimate. Different from actually having sex. While they were sleeping, those girls had lost their carefully applied cover of make-up from the evening before. The person a girl pretended to be, while dancing in a club, would make place for the person they really were. Complex. Sensitive. A real person, with real feelings.

Somehow, I found it hard to handle that truth. It was way easier to simply think about them as objects. It made me feel less bad.

But if I wasn't going to go back in bed, what was I going to do then? I thought hard. The simple effort combined with the hangover caused a throbbing pain in my head. Finally, I came up with two options.

option a) Lie down on the couch. That was one thing I could do. My head hurt like hell, and maybe I could go back to sleep. But I didn't think I would be able to. Plus, I'd have to face Krissy and Carla soon.

The other option was, b) Go outside. It was still dark out, but the air was warm, and maybe walking around would clear my head.

So, option b) it was.

I took a pen, and a sticky-note, and wrote down:

'Thanks for tonight, but duty calls. Gotta go.' Just before I signed my name, I remembered that I'd introduced myself as Jet. I wrote down a cursive J. and couldn't resist drawing a small airplane next to it.

Then, I quickly collected my stuff (my cell phone, a pair of sunglasses and the little money I'd had on me)

Just before I started to sneak out, I noticed that a phone number was written on the horn of the girls' old fashioned phone. Phone numbers were always useful, and that way, I could contact them whenever I was bored. I quickly punched in the number in my cell, and saved it under C&K. Then I left for real. I didn't put on my shoes until I was outside so they wouldn't hear me leave. Then I wondered where to go.

I had been in LA before, but I'd never explored the city further than the nightclubs and casino's, so I ended up wandering aimlessly, wishing that I'd searched the apartment for some painkillers. I considered calling Lee to pick me up, but I knew he'd still be asleep. My cell-phone indicated that it was 5:02 am, and the city was still dark. Sometimes I would hear the pulsing beat of a party that was going on all night long, but the idea of going in didn't appeal to me at all. The sound only hurt my head.

There were a lot of stores opened in LA, for this time of day. The light in a tiny bakery was burning bright, and went inside and ordered a cup of black coffee. The man behind the counter had a bit of flour in his salt-and-pepper grey hair, which made it look even whiter than it already was. He didn't speak to me, and just nodded to one of the small tables in the store. I sat down, and waited until he brought me the coffee. I paid for it immediately. It was so cheap that I gave him the double amount as a tip. He gave me a grateful smile, still without speaking, and then went back into the kitchen where he was baking his bread.

I just sat there, sipping my coffee. It helped my headache a little, and it seemed to break the hazy barrier that had been blocking my thoughts. I wondered where Rose was at that moment, and imagined her lying in Dimitri's arms, fast asleep, a smile on her face.

I wished I were the one that made her happy. But I knew I would never be. I suddenly felt really alone, and almost wished I'd stayed at the girls' apartment, just to have someone to talk to.

I stood up, and went outside, and I vaguely wondered how the air here could be this warm, without the sun shining. There were no people out on the street. The only light was coming from the shops. One of them caught my attention. I stopped to look at it.

It was a tiny art gallery, that sold beautiful oil paintings. The door was opened, and I slipped inside. It smelled of a strange mixture of paint and incense, and a human woman with bright red hair, about sixty years old, was working on a large painting. When I first glanced at it, it looked like a huge butterfly. But as I looked harder, I noticed a million tiny paintings hidden it its wings. Flowers, birds, and brightly colored swirls that didn't seem to have a beginning or an end. But also darkness. Tiny black monsters hid in the corners of the wings. For a moment, the woman was too caught up in her painting to even notice me. But when she did, she smiled.

"Hello, young man." She said, "What do you think of my painting?"

I looked at it for several more moments. "It's incredibly beautiful." I said, speaking my thoughts. "What is the meaning behind it?" I knew paintings like that always had stories.

She glanced up at me. "That's a nice question, but I think you know the answer yourself. You tell me what it stands for."

I thought for a minute, and she simply watched me. "I think it stands for life." I finally said. "Just like the simple shape of a butterfly, the concept of life seems like something simple. You're born, you live, you die. But when you look closer, life is much more complicated. You can get lost in endless patterns, you may never get out again. There is love and beauty, the flowers and the birds, and also the monsters, sadness, grief and pain." I finished.

She looked up at me, an amused smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "And here I thought I was just painting a butterfly."

I smiled. "That's okay, too."

"Are you an artist yourself?"She asked.

"Sort of."I replied. "I used to paint a little." The art classes I'd taken, were one of the few things in school that I had liked. And I had been pretty good at it too. But I always found it hard to stick to assignments, and my teacher had gotten mad at me, when I handed in a painting of a cat when I was supposed to paint a forest. After that, I hadn't showed up to any of the classes anymore.

"You don't look like you're here to buy art." The woman said.

"No, not really." I admitted. " I just wanted to look at the paintings."

" Will you join me? " She gestured towards an empty sheet of canvas. "You could use my oil paint…"

And that's how I ended up painting, in a tiny art studio in LA at six in the morning. I painted a river that reflected the sunlight in a million different colors, emphasizing them by surrounding the water with dark gray rocks that casted distorted shadows in the water. At the end of the river, just barely visible, was a field filled with golden flowers that reflected the sunlight. It was one of my best paintings so far. I had the texture of the rocks and the water down perfectly.

" It's incredibly beautiful." Said the woman, I'd learned her name was Maggie, echoing my earlier words. " What is the meaning behind it?"

"Guess." I said.

"I think it means hope." She said. " The river leads from the dark rocks, into the light."

I smiled up at her. "Thank you." I said. " For everything."

Then, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Lee. 'goin back 2 clarnce. where can I pick u up?' It said. I asked Maggie what the street name was, and texted it to him. 'be there in 10' was his reply.

" What do you want to do with your painting?" Maggie asked. "I could place it in the gallery, and sell it for you, if you want. I'll give you the money."

I could definitely use some extra money. " Will you do that for me?" I asked. I'd learned enough about her to know that she wouldn't just place anything in her precious art gallery.

"I'd be pleased to have such a wonderful work here." She said. " You just need to sign it, and give me your number. I'll call you when I find a buyer."

I wrote down my phone number on a piece of paper. Then, I dipped the smallest paintbrush into the black paint, and wrote 'Adrian Ivashkov' in tiny print on the canvas.

"Take a picture of it." Maggie urged me. " It won't be the same as the real painting, but that way you'll never forget what it looks like." So I took a picture with my phone camera, and quickly after, I heard Lee's car pull up outside. I told Maggie goodbye.

"I hope you'll never stop painting." was her reply.

"I won't" I murmured, sliding in the front seat of Lee's car.

"So, what have you done all night?" Lee asked.

I opened the picture of my painting on my phone, and smiled. "Something fun." I said.

_So, that was another chapter. I completely made this one up, so I hope you don't think it's too out of character. I wanted to give Adrian back some of his depth. Plus, I have to admit, even in the books I like Adrian best when he's vulnerable like that. _

_Let me know what you think about these chapters that aren't in the books at all. Do you guys want me to stick strictly to the Adrian chapters Richelle Mead describes, or do you like Adrian on his own? _

_Love, Number 101  
_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Disclaimer: **__Richelle Mead owns Adrian, no matter how much we all wish he was ours. _

Home sweet home, I thought bitterly, entering Clarence manor. The man himself was fast asleep, and I could hear him snoring in his room. I peeked in through the half opened door. He looked unhealthy, not just pale like most of us Moroi. His skin was almost transparent, and I could see some of his blue veins lying underneath. He vaguely reminded me of a feeder, a human who gave blood for us to drink. They were also this sickly pale. I wondered for a moment what was wrong with Clarence, before I got distracted again. Lee came in, loudly singing along with the radio playing in the kitchen.

And by singing, I mean croaking. And also some squeaking was involved in the high notes.

"Hate to break it to you, my friend, but I don't think my label is going to sign you." I said.

" Huh?" He obviously hadn't noticed me before, and gave me a confused look.

Disappointed not to get a smarter response out of him, I rolled my eyes, and went to look for a snack before switching on the TV. The only food I could find were carrots and other things Sage would definitely approve of. Which of course meant I disapproved of them. Oh, how I'd kill for a slice of pizza right now. I returned to the TV with the bag of carrots, and ended up watching an old _Buffy the Vampire Slayer _ episode. I'd watched most of the series when they first aired (always fun to watch humans fail at playing vamps), but that had been before I'd met Rose. Now, the strong female heroine who killed evil vampires, but was also in love with one, reminded me of her. If only she had, like Buffy, chosen the vampire, then maybe she'd be here with me now. But no, of course not. She had chosen Dimitri, the faithful soldier-boyfriend, just like Riley had been on the show. I'd always hated Riley anyway.

I half-laughed out loud. I was managing to make myself feel depressed by comparing my life to a vampire tv-series. That's how sad and lonely I'd become. At least I still managed to get the girls. I looked back on my night in Vegas with mixed feelings. Being Jet had felt wrong, but it had also been comforting to be able fall back into my old womanizing habits this easily. And it wasn't like I didn't have a nice time with those girls..

I leaned back against the soft fabric of the couch. I must have fallen asleep at some point, still tired from the night before, because when I regained consciousness again, I heard Sage's clear voice from the other room, politely declining a can of pop. Oh no, sugar, I filled in her thoughts; you must never consume it, I've heard it makes you fat and then you die.

I then realized I only had 40 seconds to rearrange my hair from sleeping-on-the-couch messy to my usual stylish messy, before Jill and company walked in. I only just succeeded in time, and was pretending to be reading the paper when they entered the room.

"Hi." Sage said. "Since when are you interested in the third-wave feminism?"

I looked up at her, confused. She gestured towards the paper. 'Riot grrrl and lipstick feminism' read the headline. Right. I hadn't noticed that, but I was quick to recover.

"Nothing as important as gender equality." I Said.

She nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She saw straight through me. "I couldn't agree with you more."

Then, Jill walked in, carrying a flat square box. I smelt the pizza before I saw it.

"Jailbait, you're a saint. A goddess even." I said, pretending to fall at her feet in gratefulness.

"Hey." Said Sage. " I'm the one who paid for them."

Oh, so she wanted to be a goddess too. Like I was going to tell her that. "You're okay too, Sage," I said instead.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Clarence walked in, leaning on his wooden cane. "Looks like a party."

Lee walked in too, nodding to us. His gaze lingered on Jill, and I shot him a murderous look. I didn't think he noticed, though, because he made a point of sitting close to her. Jill seemed happy about it, though.

Then, Keith walked in, too. I saw Sage's eyes widen, when he sat down next to Clarence. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

He actually winked at her with his one eye, as if they hadn't been fighting last time they spoke. "Came to check in on everybody, and make sure al 's well. That's my job- to look after everyone." Then his eyes drifted off to the pizza. MY pizza. Wow, I really hated this guy.

We ate the pizza together, and I made a point of glaring at Keith while I ate. He'd better not get any of his gross hair gel on my pizza. Then, I glanced towards Sage. She shrugged, and went back to eating her miniscule bite of cheese pizza.

Jill was more elaborate, telling me in great detail about her days. She sounded so happy, being here, that I almost felt guilty for making her feel bad through the bond. But mostly, it was nice to listen to her chatter, and I smiled indulgently, and commented on the stuff I told her, making her, and occasionally Sage, laugh. Then I noticed Sage slipped into a whispered conversation with Gelhead. I caught something about tattoos. Gelhead seemed pretty angry in the end.

"How's PE?" I asked her, when they stopped talking.

"Not great." She said. "Jill has been suffering from the heat, but Micah does his best to be her knight in shiny armor, and he guards her with a bottle of water and a Chinese fan."

I laughed. "Of course he does." Sage launched into another story about Jill in PE.

"You can't go on like that," Lee exclaimed when she finished, "The sun around here is brutal."

"I agree." Said Keith. What? He was the one who had been a douchebag about this. And now he was blaming Sage. "Why didn't you tell me how bad it was?"

Sage looked astonished. "I did! That's why I was trying to get you to contact the school."

"You didn't really give me the whole story." He smiled at Jill. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this for you. I'll get in touch with the school officials- and the alchemists."

That son of a bitch. I remembered perfectly clear what he's said to Sage the other day. I caught her eyes.

I opened my mouth to tell Keith exactly what I thought of him and his fake niceness, but Sage stopped me.

"How was LA?" she asked. "You went with Lee last night, right?"

I looked at her curiously, for not letting me prove her right. "Yeah," I said at last. "It was great." I grinned. "Lee showed me college life.

Lee laughed, "I wouldn't go that far. I didn't know where you were half the night."

I knew that. "We parted ways. I was getting to know some of the other Moroi in the area," I said with a wicked smile.

"Oh, is that what you call it?" Said Eddie. I flashed him an even wider grin.

I then noticed Jill had frozen, when the topic of LA came up. She stood up abruptly. "I'm going to get my blood now. Is that okay?"

Everybody was silent for a moment, not knowing to who she was speaking, before Clarence said "Of course my dear. I believe Dorothty is in the kitchen."

Jill nodded, and hurried off.

Oh, shit.. I hadn't been drunk enough. How much had she seen? I sure hoped she hadn't had the full Jet experience. I felt like the worst person ever.

Luckily, nobody connected the LA thing to Jill's strange behavior. Instead, they ended up discussing the group outing. Lee had come up with the idea of going mini-golfing. We all agreed, and after Sage had carefully asked Keith permission (she really needed to stop listening to that asshole) we were ready to go tonight. I was excited at the idea of doing something fun. Clarence was happy for us too.

"Ah, how nice," He said, "An outing for you young people. Perhaps you'll share a glass of wine with me first." He smiled at me. "I know you'd like a glass."

Oh yes, I'd definitely like one. But how could I, while Jill was sitting right in front of me, after what she'd endured last night. I took a deep breath, and declined. "I'd better not."

"You should" said Jill, being way nicer than I deserved.

"Can't" I said, determined now.

"It's the weekend," Jill said, "It's not that big of a deal, especially if you're careful."

We locked gazes, and finally, I gave up. "Alright. Pour me a glass."

"Pour me one too, please" said Keith. Sage was surprised. "Really? I didn't know you drank."

"I'm twenty-one" Said Keith, defensively.

"Somehow," I interjected, "I'm thinking that's not sage's concern. I thought Alchemists avoided alcohol the same way they do primary colors." I gazed at Sage's grey outfit.

Keith still had that arrogant air to him, ignoring my comment, and bringing the glass to his lips. Oh, that guy really annoyed the hell out of me.

I took a sip of my glass, and said, just loud enough for everybody to hear, "Mmm. O-positive, my favorite."

Keith sprayed out the wine like a fountain, and Jill burst into giggles. Ha. Served him right.

Clarence stared at his glass, aura confused. "Is it? I thought it was a cabaret sauvignon.

"So it is," I said. "My mistake."

Gelhead was obviously not amused, though he pretended to laugh about it. His khaki pants were covered in red splashes of wine. What do you know, he was wearing primary colors after all.

I flashed Sage a secret, knowing smile. _That's payback for earlier._

* * *

_I'm so sorry I haven't updated for so long. I had test week (how do you call it?) this week, so I have been studying, instead of writing . I hope you haven't given up on my story yet. I'm updating, it just takes a little long. I have like, crazy respect for those people who update their story daily, just how do you manage that?_

_Please tell me what you think of this chapter. Reviews make me happier than anything. Any suggestions on things I should have Adrian do before the end of Bloodlines? Let me know._

_Love, Number101_


	12. Chapter 12

_I am too lazy to come up with a creative **Disclaimer, **but Richelle Mead still owns bloodlines._

"No way." Sage told me, glaring at my package of Marlboro light. "This is a strict no-smoking car."

"C'mon Sage," I begged. It was a half-hour drive to the mini-golf course, and I desperately needed my nicotine fix. "I'll open the window."

"Did you know cigarettes contain ammonia, which is basically the same stuff you clean a toilet with?" Sage told me.

"I _never _clean toilets, so it doesn't really matter." I responded. She rolled her eyes at me. "And you wanted to have your own apartment."

I fought as hard as I possibly could for my cigarette, but when Sage started summing up a list of all the harmful chemicals inside them, I finally gave up. When we pulled into the driveway, I shot out of the car before it even came to complete standstill, and instantly lit my 'carbon monoxide and formaldehyde source' and inhaled the smoke. Finally. Savoring the taste of my cigarette, I watched the others get out of the car.

"I've actually never been mini-golfing." I heard Sage say.

Lee stopped his whispered conversation with Jill, and stared at her, in, what I could only read as complete and utter shock. "Never?"

"Never," She said.

"How does that happen?" I asked, also surprised. "How is it possible that you've never played mini-golf?"

Sage looked like she regretted bringing it up. "I had kind of an unusual childhood." She finally said.

"You?" Said Eddie incredulously. "I was practically raised at an isolated school in the middle of nowhere Montana, and even I've played mini-golf."

Sage was quiet after that, and I wondered, for a second, what she had meant with 'an unusual childhood'. Then, we arrived at the first course, which was shaped like a windmill. I had always been pretty good at mini-golf, but luck obviously wasn't on my side. Every time I made a perfectly straight shot at the hole, the wind blew the ball out of the right direction.

Sage didn't seem to have any problem with mini-golfing, though. She knocked her ball through a plastic dragon's mouth, straight into the hole.

"Unbelievable." I heard Eddie tell her. "If you'd been playing since you were a child, you'd be a pro by now. How'd you do that?"

"It's simple geometry. You're not bad either." She replied.

I almost laughed . Only Sage would use geometry on mini-golf.

"How do you do it?" She asked Eddie.

"I just line and putt." He replied. "Very scientific."

"I just rely on natural talent." I boasted. "When you have such a wealth of it to draw from, the danger comes from having too much."

"That makes no sense whatsoever," Eddie told me.

Oh, how the genius of my comments was wasted on these people, I thought, dramatically. Then I took out my silver flask, which I'd filled with some of the wine from earlier, and took a quick drink.(I wished I'd had something stronger, but Clarence's liquor cabinet was almost empty by now) I earned a nice 'you-can't-have-alcohol-out-here'-comment from Sage, and then lined up my shot. I hit the dragon in his eye, leaving a dent in the plastic.

"Natural talent, huh," Eddie pointed out, enjoying it way too much.

Sage leaned forward, "I think you broke the dragon's eye."

"Just like Keith." I smiled, like I had aimed for the eye all along. Sage gave me a sharp look, and Eddie (unnecessarily, if you ask me,) came to her defense. "That was inappropriate."

"Sorry, Dad." I smirked. I got the ball in the hole in three shots this time. Stupid wind. Stupid geometrics. Stupid Sage and Eddie who refused to write down three shots, instead of four, because of my dragon eye-assault.

"That was just the warm-up." I said, flashing her my most charming smile. "Come on, Sage. You understand how my mind works. You said that I was brilliant, remember."

"You did?" asked Eddie, so surprised I almost felt insulted.

"No! I never said that." Sage yelled. I kept smiling at her, which seemed to annoy her even more.

"Stop telling people that." She wanted to walk on, but Eddie caught her shoulder. "Hold up, we need to wait for Jill and Lee."

Much to my annoyance, Lee had had luck with his advances on Jill, and they were talking quietly behind us. My vampire hearing caught Lee telling her about how much he'd travelled, and making her promises about taking her to see the world. I took another sip from the wine in my flask, and shook my head at Sage.

"You had nothing to worry about, Sage. She went right for him."

"Not thanks to you. I can't believe you told her every detail of my visit that night. She was so mad at me for interfering behind her back with you, Lee and Micah." She said, angrily.

"I hardly told her anything," I argued. "I just told her to stay away from the human guy."

Now we'd caught Eddie's attention, too. "Micah?" He asked.

"Remember when I wanted you to say something to him? And you wouldn't? Sage asked, explaining why she'd come to me.

" How could you not tell me any of this?" Eddie demanded, the sadness about his crush on Jill painfully present in his aura.

Sage, unaware of his inner turmoil, simply replied, "It didn't involve you."

"Jill's safety does! If some guy likes her, I need to know." So he could check out the competition, I thought. "Should sage have passed you a note in class?" I asked, earning a glare from Eddie.  
Lee's fine, said Sage. "He obviously adores her, and it's not like she'll ever be alone with him.

Eddie of course, disagreed. "We don't know for sure that he's fine."

Whereas Micah's a hundred percent okay? Asked Sage, "did you do a background check or something?"

"No," said Eddie, "I just know. It's a feeling I get about him. There's no problem with him spending time with Jill."

"Except that he's Human." They went on arguing like that. I wondered if Eddie preferred Jill dating the human guy because he and Jill couldn't really get serious anyways, and he'd still have a bigger chance with her if she was in a dysfunctional interspecies relationship.

Finally, I got tired of their discussion. "Enough, you two. Your argument is useless. I mean, look at them. That human boy doesn't enter into it." I gestured to where Lee and Jill were holding hands behind us.

"There is an age difference between them." Sage said, suddenly doubtful.

I scoffed. "Believe me, I've seen age differences. Theirs is nothing." I walked off to the next course.

I laughed out loud when I saw it. "Sage!" I called. "You've got to see this." The golf course was shaped like a black castle with multiple towers and a narrow bridge that led the ball to the hole. A 100% pure Hollywood cliché animatronic Dracula stood beside the castle, replaying a recorded evil laugh every 20 seconds. Perfect Sage-teasing material. Or so I thought.

Because when she arrived at the course, Sage burst out laughing. I just stared at her. I'd expected her to be horrified or shocked, or start a lecture about stereotypes. Instead, her skinny frame shook under the enormous waves of laughter.

"I don't think I've ever heard her laugh," Eddie voiced my thoughts. I just couldn't take my eyes away from the dark-blond girl. When she laughed, the beauty I'd seen in her before seemed to be magnified. It was almost hypnotizing to watch.

"Certainly not the reaction I was expecting," I said, my eyes still on Sage's face. "I'd been counting on abject terror, judging from past Alchemist behavior. I didn't think you liked vampires.

With a huge grin still spread across her face, she studied Dracula. "This isn't a vampire. Not a real one. And that's what makes it funny. It's pure Hollywood camp. Real vampires are terrifying and unnatural. This? This is hilarious."

Gee, thanks Sage. 'terrifying and unnatural'. That's definitely the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me, I thought for a second. Then, I dismissed it. Sage was just repeating what the alchemists had forced into her head. It wasn't personal.

Sage asked if I could take a picture of her with Dracula, which I did. It came out pretty great, I managed to snap the shot just as Dracula was raising his cape, and sage looked surprisingly hot in it.

"Okay, even I can admit that's pretty cute." I said. She gave me a funny look, and then walked on, still a small smile on her face.

We continued mini-golfing, and I ended up losing miserably from Sage and Eddie. Damn wind.

After we'd finished, Jill ran over to the waterfall, gazing up at it almost adoringly. "Oh, this is wonderful. I haven't seen this much water in days."

I saw Jill focus on the waterfall, preparing to use her water magic. A part of the water broke off, and she made form beautiful spirals in the air, before letting it shatter into a million drops. I smiled indulgently, until I noticed Sage had gone pale.

"Jill," She said with a strange, quiet voice, "Don't do that again."  
Jill didn't listen, too caught up in her own magic. "No one is around to see, Sydney."

I knew that wasn't why Sydney looked like she was ready to throw up. She was terrified of magic, and I saw the growing fear in her eyes as obviously, as I saw it in her aura. Her yellow was consumed by a dark blue. To her, magic was the most unnatural thing yet, about us vampires. "Stop it." She squeaked. "Don't do it anymore."

Jill ignored her, and instead turned to Lee. "You're air, right? Can you create fog over the water?"

Lee looked nervous. "Ah, well, it's probably not a good idea. I mean, we're in public.

"Come on, it won't take any effort at all." She begged.

"Nah, not right now." Lee said.

Jill laughed, making the water spin in infinite 8-shapes in the air. "Not you too."  
"Jill," I said, not calling her Jailbait for once. "Stop."

She seemed shocked and confused by my serious tone, and immediately dropped the water. "Fine."

It was silent for a moment, and then Eddie said, "We should hurry. We're going to be pushing curfew."

Lee and Jill walked on, quickly flirting and laughing again. I turned my attention towards Sage, worried about her. I'd never seen her so scared before. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine," She replied, curtly.

"Sage—"

"Leave me alone," She said, surprising me with her angry response. She walked off, and I didn't follow.

Terrifying and unnatural.. I thought.

_Hey everybody. I know I suck at updating regularly. But typing over parts of a book is a lot of work. _

_The indigo spell is coming out in two days! Did you guys order a copy? I haven't done it yet, so I feel like a pretty terrible fan. I really really really want to read it, though. _

_Also, someone mentioned that I was leaving out a large part of the book, where Sydney comes to save Adrian from LA, which I am not leaving out. It just hasn't happened yet. Adrian goes to LA to party two times during the first book, one time with Lee, and later he gets a lift from a group of people he doesn't really know. He's only stuck there after the second time. SO THERE. ;)_

_Anyways, thank you for all the reviews again, you all have beautiful aura's according to Adrian. Mystical purple and stuff. _

_-Number 101_


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: **Imagine a disclaimer where Richelle Mead owns bloodlines

I pretended to listen to the conversations in the car, while my mind drifted into a different universe, where everything was better, the sky just so slightly rimmed with the daze of alcohol. A universe free of self-loathing, and heartbreak.

"This is your stop, Adrian" Sage's voice snapped me back to reality. The boring reality of Clarence's home. I climbed out of the car, and opened the door with my own (newly acquired) key. Lee followed.

"Man, I really like that girl," he told me.

"Just be careful with her, or I won't be careful with you." I growled, still slightly annoyed with their relationship.

"That's about the lamest threat ever," he replied lightly, apparently confident that I wasn't going to change anything about his relationship with Jill. Which, honestly, I wasn't. Not like I'd let him know that anytime soon though.

"Just don't make me act on it."

Clarence wasn't home, which I found strange, because there were few places he could be. Lee said he was probably visiting some friendly neighbors . "My old man needs some social time too, every now and then."

I sat down on my favorite spot on the green couch, and flicked open the tv-guide, suddenly feeling sort of lonely, without all my ' family'. On the first page of the guide was an advertisement for a brand new club in Palm Springs, called Zelda's nightclub. They were throwing an opening party tonight. Suddenly I didn't feel like sitting here and feeling sorry for myself anymore. Instead, I wanted to get out.

I tried to get Lee to come with me, but he refused, saying his favorite TV show would be on soon. So I arrived at Zelda's by myself, about half an hour later. I could hear the beat inside. I saw people waiting in line, while a doorman, dressed in all black, let in a group of women. I didn't have a ticket, I realized. I quickly made up a course of action.

One of the staff members was smoking outside. I went into pretend-drunk mode, stumbling over my own legs and smashed into him, quickly snatching the staff member name card from his neck and sliding it into my pocket.

"ss.. Ssorryy.." I slurred convincingly. He nodded towards me. "Wouldn't drink anymore if I were you."

I walked past the long queue standing before the entrance, humming along with the song that was blasting from the speakers. When the bouncer noticed me, he held out a large hand to stop me. "Wait your turn," his voice boomed over the speakers.

"I work here. Bartender. Someone puked on the staff entrance." I met his gaze keeping my face confident. He finally nodded. " Okay, go in."

Surprised that he'd believed me that quickly (must be a newbie bouncer), I quickly entered the club. Getting into clubs without waiting (or paying entrance fees for that matter) was a game I'd played with my friends when I was still going to college classes. All of us could easily afford tickets, of course, but we did it for the adrenalin rush. The staff-routine as I called it, was a classic. It had an entire stage 2 action plan, for when bouncers didn't believe you, but I hadn't even needed that.

I bought myself a drink, and was quickly surrounded by a group of people, yelling over the music, and occasionally dancing. The Zelda wasn't very big, and going for a sort of vintage night club style, with high wooden bar stools and glittery decorations. We did shots, which were served on some sort of large plate. With every glass of alcohol, I felt a little better. As it got later, more people seemed to be getting past the bouncer, and the Zelda was jam-packed.

"Ugh." I heard Dave (or was his name Dean..?), one of the guys I met in the Zelda, yell over a loud top 40 song. "It's too crowded in here. I can't even move."

"I knoww, right," his friend told him, sounding impressively drunk, "We ssshould go somewhere elssse."

"Where do you wanna go, baby." A blonde girl he'd been making out with earlier asked him, suggestively pulling down her shirt so her already low neckline became even lower.

He didn't pick up on her (very, very obvious) signals, but said, "I wanna go to LA. Party with the stars."

"Let's do it, man. I feel like anything is possible tonight." Dave put on his sunglasses, and turned to me. "I got a cute convertible, you wanna come?"

And like that, I ended up in a car with Dave, his unidentified friend and the blonde girl. The radio was turned up on maximum volume, and I was lost in strange unintelligible thoughts, as I screamed along with the '_hello, hello, hello" _chorus of smells like teen spirit. I felt great, the rush of alcohol in my veins. We were lucky the highway wasn't very crowded, because even in my drunken state, I noticed Dave was in no condition to be driving. We were pushing the speed limit, and the car was zigzagging on the road. It was fun.

When we arrived in LA, I directed the group to the club I'd been with Lee earlier, and we walked in. (I paid for my ticket this time) They were still playing the awesome dubstep mix I'd loved dancing to previous time, and I felt like I was let out of my cage, dancing on tabletops and banging my fists against an imaginary wall. The only thing that missed were girls. There were enough girls checking me out, but none of them were moroi. I'd lost the people I came with pretty quickly while in the club, and I'd found a whole bunch of new fairweather-friends to dance with. Still, no Moroi girls. I wished the girls from previous time, whose names I'd long forgotten, were here. Then, I realized I could get them here. I went outside, a cigarette in hand, and took out my phone.

...

"Oh, that feels so good." The blonde-haired Moroi girl moaned, as I moved my lips up her neck, pushing her against the pink wallpaper of the apartment she and her friend shared. Like previous time, we'd ended up partying here, together with another gorgeous Moroi girl, a friend of theirs. Her name had turned out to be Misty, and she had long black hair and piercing blue eyes. And a flowery tattoo that led from her hip all the way down to… well, you know. She'd shown it to me proudly while we were dancing on top of the couch.

But now I was making out with Krissy again. She fell back against the couch as I continued stroking her mouth with my tongue, spilling some of the cheap beer in her hand on the carpet. She was too occupied to notice, and so was I, lust sweeping over me.

"You're amazing, Jet Steele." She whispered against my lips, "Don't stop touching me."

But somehow, her words triggered the opposite reaction. I slid away from her, my hands letting go of her shirt. How many times had I imagined Rose would say those words to me, tell me that she wanted me, and no one else? But she'd never said those things, because she knew it wouldn't be true. She'd always wanted someone more than she wanted me. Dimitri. All I'd been to her was a distraction. Something to toy with, while she fantasized about her epic Russian love. My eyes fell on Krissy, who seemed to have passed out. How much did I mean to her? Nothing? Or more than nothing? She'd remembered my last name. I couldn't tell what hers was, even though I knew she'd told me. Maybe she actually felt something. Maybe I was doing the same thing to her as Rose did to me. Maybe I was tearing her heart out, just because I couldn't have who I wanted. I was using her to make myself feel better. How was that fair? Wasn't that exactly the way I had been hurt myself?

Something inside me screamed that I wasn't being completely sensible, but the voice got lost in the whirlwind of my thoughts.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to Krissy. "I don't want to be a victim anymore."

...

I took another bottle of beer, and sat down on the soft carpet. I was gazing out the window, into the starry night sky. After a few minutes, the girl with the curly brown hair came to sit next to me, taking the bottle from my hand, and sipping it slowly.

"You know how there used to be nine planets in our solar system?" I asked her.

She looked up at me, surprised. "Yes. I took an astronomy class when I was younger."

"How could it be, that one day they just decided Pluto didn't count as a planet anymore? It does what all the other planets do, just circle around the sun. It's already the farthest away from the sun , and maybe it tries to get closer, but it always fails, you know? Because something, gravity, magnetic pull, whatever, is keeping it in its orbit. It can't escape itself. It is what it is, and it can never change. And the sun doesn't care. Neither do the other planets. And suddenly, some fucking scientists decide it is not even planet anymore. It just doesn't count. All the time it spent, trying to get closer to the sun, escaping from his icy orbit, was for nothing. It just gets thrown away." I was suddenly angry, though I didn't really know why.

"It makes me feel bad for Pluto." She said, softly.

"I feel like Pluto sometimes." I said. "And you can't feel more bad for Pluto than Pluto feels bad for itself."

I stood on the tiny balcony, gazing down at the city. The three girls were asleep, but I couldn't escape my own thoughts long enough to fall asleep, too. Last time I'd stood here, I'd left for the city. I'd met Maggie, the artist, and we'd painted together. But I didn't even feel like painting this time. I felt too messed up to even do that, and I knew that if I would pick up a paintbrush now, the only thing I could paint was her face. Rose, my personal sun.

I didn't want to go into the city, but I didn't want to be here either. I quietly wished I could just stop existing altogether. I lit one of my cigarettes. Okay, maybe not stop existing. If I didn't exist, that would mean I couldn't smoke anymore either. I smiled a half smile. _Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Adrian. _I thought. But I was stuck in my orbit.

* * *

_Hello you :)_

_I don't really know how I feel about this chapter yet. Adrian is a little too whiny for my taste. Maybe I'll go tweak it later. How do you guys feel about it?_

_And now, time for my post-story ramble(which a surprisingly large amount of people actually seem to read. You guys are awesome.) I got myself a copy of the indigo spell, and it is amazing. I fell in love with all the characters again, instantly. It took just about everything I have, not to finish it immediately. I don't know whether any of you guys read the Georgina Kincaid Succubus series, (Also by Richelle Mead)but Georgina actually reads only five pages a day of her favorite book, so she can enjoy it for a longer time. I can't do that. I just can't. When I read a book I like, it just consumes me, and I can't stop reading until I'm finished. Bad habit, because I actually tend to ignore people, phone calls, etc. Yeah, I definitely have some issues. But at least I don't smoke :)_

_And about the aura stuff (here we go) , _

_Someone asked what purple actually meant. According to TIS it means that the person has a passionate and spiritual nature. _

_Yellow indicates that the person is an intellectual. (SYDNEY 3)_

_I have to admit that I made up that dark blue indicates fear, but after all this aura talk, I did some research, and found this cute site, that explains aura colors. It's interpretation of purple doesn't match Richelle's, but I like it anyways. It's sort of right about yellow though. Maybe I'll use it in the future, so I can focus a little more on Adrian's aura seeing. _

_Love, Number 101_

_Ps. Yeah, guest user, you're right. My aura is red for Adrian, which, according to the site indicates, among other things, raw passion. :p_

_Pps. Tell me what you think about TID so far :)_


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: **_I hereby re-announce the publicly known information that bloodlines is still owned by the lovely Richelle Mead._

I just stood up there, on the tiny balcony, in a flat owned by people who didn't even know my real name, gazing out over the collection of streets and buildings that were called Los Angeles. My Ipod was playing the Kid A album by Radiohead, the songs blending together in my half drunk-half sober state. And I just kept staring up at the sky, until the sun slowly started to rise, and the city-night sounds were gradually replaced by the sounds of city-morning. The music had long since stopped, because my playlist had ended, but I hadn't been able to muster the energy to even press play again.

When morning finally came, the bright sunlight hurt my eyes, but it was also weirdly refreshing. I suddenly felt the weirdness of being in this apartment, and wished I had a better way of getting home than hitchhiking. For a moment I considered borrowing the girls' bright pink car, but knew that would be going too far. I couldn't do that to them. No, it looked like I was going to have to hitchhike home. I just hoped I would be able to find a car who'd take me before I passed out on the side of the highway, and the little bugs started eating me alive. But the idea of even walking down the stairs to the streets was too much for me at the moment. So I stayed up at the balcony, watching and listening.

I wondered if the crashing sound I was hearing outside were the waves hitting shore behind the building. The back of the building (from where I was standing) was facing the beach. I wished I could look at it. Dreaming about waves and sand, I took out one of my beloved cigarettes, lit it, and brought it to my mouth. The routine movement brought me a strange sort of comfort. It may sound stupid, but smoking always was one of the small things I could hold on to when everything that was normal seemed to fall apart around me.

I vaguely heard the sound of a ringing doorbell, but at that point my mind was too occupied with my hangover to really react to it. God, I shouldn't have drunk that much. Jill.. the bond... The bond! Maybe Jill knew I was here and..

"Hey Jet!." -That's me, my mind slowly processed, "There's some saleswoman here to see you."

I only knew one person she could be talking about. Sage, the perfect little alchemist 'saleswoman' here to save me. I grinned to myself. "Send her out," I called.

Sure enough, her small blond figure emerged through the patio door. She made a point of frowning at the cigarette in my hand, and then looked up at my face. She looked tired, shadows under her soft brown eyes that didn't belong there. The golden ink in her tattoo glimmered in the sunlight.

"Tell me this, Sage." I said, making sure my voice didn't betray how horrible I actually felt, "Why the hell would someone put a building near the beach but not have it face the water?" They were built to look at hills behind us. Unless the neighbors start doing something interesting, I'm ready to declare this structure a total waste."

Sage however, didn't seem in the mood for small talk. She crossed her arms and gave me her version of a glare, which made her look annoyingly cute, her voice reaching that uber-sarcastic tone that only she could manage. "I'm so glad I've got your valuable opinion on that. I'll be sure and note it when I file my complaint to the city council for their inadequate ocean views."

I turned around to face her now, the hint of a smile on my lips. Even her sarcasm was businesslike.

"What are you doing here?" I asked innocently, "I figured you'd be in church or something."

"What do you think?' she said, sounding really pissed now, "I'm here because of the pleas of a fifteen-year-old girl who doesn't deserve what you put her through."

"Oh," Shit. Jill had told her. "She told you." Great, that meant I was going to be spending the rest of the year being poked and prodded in a fun little alchemist lab, where my only friends would be microscopes and Styrofoam cups. I turned away from Sage.

"Yes." she said, "and you should have told me sooner! This is serious… monumental."

Great. Monumental and serious. Do I get a pin-badge for that? "And no doubt something the alchemists would love to study." I sneered.

"I promised her I wouldn't tell." Sage said, surprising me. She was a better friend to Jill than I thought. "But you still should've filled me in. It's kind of important information to have since I'm the one who has to babysit all of you."

"'Babysit' is kind of an extreme term, Sage." I pointed out. Did she really see us as little children? She had no right to act that superior.

She thought she did, though. "Considering the current scenario? No, not really."

I didn't react to that, mostly because she sort of had a point. I kept staring at the building across the road, where one of the neighbors had finally emerged, dancing around on the balcony with what appeared to be either a tiny puma or a very large black cat. Finally something interesting.

"Did you bring a coat?" Sage asked, distracting me from the wonders of cat-tango.

"No."

I heard her step inside again, and vaguely wondered where she was going. I was so tired, however that I almost fell asleep standing up straight. But before I could actually start snoring, Sage dropped my shoes next to me on the balcony.

"Put those on. We're leaving." She ordered.

I didn't feel like listening to commands at that moment. No, scratch that, I don't feel like listening to commands, period. "You aren't my mom."

"No." She said, voice cold, "Yours is serving a sentence for perjury and theft, if memory serves."

That got my attention. I whipped around , using all my conjuring up all my energy to glare at her with enough force to burn through a metal. "Don't you ever mention her again. You have no idea what you're talking about." I said angrily.

Sage kept surprisingly calm under my glare. "Actually, I was the one in charge of tracking down the records she stole."

"She had her reasons." I said. Nobody would ever say bad things about my mom. She was the only one who'd ever really believed in me.

"You're so willing to defend someone who was convicted for a crime, yet you don't have any consideration for Jill –who's done nothing." Sage continued.

"I have plenty of consideration for her." I lit another cigarette, my hands trembling with a mixture of extreme fatigue and suppressed anger. "I think about her all the time. How could I not? She's there… I can't feel it, but she's always there, always listening to things in my head, listening to things I don't want to hear," the hopelessness I'd felt earlier started consuming me again, "Feeling things, I don't want to feel."

I tried to distract myself by inhaling on the cigarette, but it didn't feel half as comforting now, not with Sage's judgmental gaze on me.

"If you're so aware of her, then how come you do stuff like this?" She gestured around us. "How could you drink when you know it affects her too? How could you do.." She was quiet for a moment, looking for the right words, normally, I'd have teased her about her unwillingness to say anything slightly related to sex. But not right now. She composed herself quickly "whatever you did with those girls, knowing she could 'see' it? She's _fifteen_."

"I know, I know," I said. "I didn't know about the drinking –not at first, When she came over after school and told me that day, I stopped. I really did." I vaguely wondered why I was telling her this "But then.. when you guys were over on Friday, she told me to go ahead, since it was the weekend. I guess she wasn't as worried about getting sick. So I said to myself, 'I'll just have a couple.' Only last night, it turned into more than that. And things got kind of crazy and I ended up here and – what am I doing? I don't have to justify my actions to you.

"I don't think you can justify them to anyone." She sounded even more furious than before.

Well, if she was going to be mean, so was I. "You're one to talk, Sage." I said. "At least I take action. You? You let the world go by without you. You stand there while that asshole Keith treats you like crap and just smile and nod. You have no spine. You don't fight back. Even old Abe seems to push you around. Was Rose right that he's got something on you? Or is he just someone else you won't fight back against?" I sucked in a breath."

I saw in her eyes that I had hurt her, even though besides that she didn't show it. "You don't know the first thing about me, Adrian Ivashkov." She said in her most icy tone. "I fight back plenty.

"You could've fooled me."

When she gave me a tight smile, I thought I was going to die of frostbite. "I just don't make a spectacle of myself when I do it. It's called being responsible."

"Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.." I was far too tired for this conversation anyway. Apparently, so was Sage, because she said; "that's the thing. I don't sleep anymore, because I have to come save you from your own idiocy. Can we go now? Please?

I surrendered at that, after all, she'd come all the way here for me. I put out my cigarette, and started putting on my shoes.

…

…

_Whew, that was another chapter. Adrian's deep conversation with Sydney is to be continued in the next chapter. I'm so sorry for being such a sucky updater. I've just had so much to do, and I just didn't have the time to even think about writing. I hope you haven't given up on me yet. _

_Please let me know what you think about this chapter/the story. A nice comment like the one from SupernaturalWriter (if you're reading this, thanks :3) can really make my day! And also if there is something you think I could improve, let me know._

_Love, Number 101_

_Ps. AAAH the ending of the indigo spell. That is bound to go wrong in the Fiery Heart. (which is by the way partly in Adrian's perspective. I'm sort of scared. What if it turns out I got his mind completely wrong. Haha)_


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: *sigh* Anybody have an idea who owns Bloodlines? I'm pretty sure it's that chick called Richelle Mead or something..**

I tied the laces of my favorite pair of oldskool Vans without looking at them. Instead I glanced up at Sage, who still had that annoyed expression on her face. I didn't get how other people stayed mad for so long. Having only one single emotion for such a long time must cost a lot of concentration, and be incredibly boring. Maybe it had to do with being a spirit user, but I could change my mood like a light switch. Just like I did now. My anger was completely gone, and instead, I used a semi- hopeful tone. The tone I used when I wanted something. Which I did.

"You have to get me out of there. " I said, " Out of Clarence's. He's a nice enough guy, but I'm going crazy if I stay there."

Sage still scowled at me. " As opposed to your excellent behavior when you aren't there?"

I could try explaining that this 'behavior' was caused by boredom and overall unhappiness with myself. Which was, in turn, caused by the loneliness of staying at Clarence's. But I didn't think I should give her such a deep look into my soul just yet. Instead, I just stared back at her, begging her with my eyes.

She continued, "Maybe your two groupies have room for you."

"Hey, show some respect." I said, quick to come to the defense of any girl I (very nearly) slept with, "They're real people with names. Carla and Krissy." A second after I'd said it, I began to doubt if I had gotten it right. ".. Or was it Missy" I added as an afterthought

Sage didn't look impressed by my name-remembering skills at all. "I told you before," she said in a tone as if she was explaining the alphabet to a toddler, "I don't have any control over your living arrangement. How hard is it for you to get your own place? Why do you need me?"

If I hadn't been that hungover, the 'why do you need me?' question would have been a perfect opening for one of my awesome jokes. But my mind came up blank, so I decided to, for once, just answer the question.

"Because I have almost no money, Sage" I said. "My old man cut me off. He gives me an allowance that's barely enough for cigarettes."

She breathed in and out slowly, which, I'd already learned, meant that she was holding back a remark she wanted to make. I briefly wondered what it was. Then she said. "I'm sorry. I really am. If I think of something, I'll let you know." Well, it was something, I thought. Sage went on, "Besides, doesn't Abe want you to stay there? I overheard you two on the first day."

So, she'd heard my 'top secret assignment'? Maybe she understood what it meant. I finally finished my laces, (hey, don't judge me, that kind of thing goes really slowly when your head hurts as much as mine did) and straightened up. "Yeah, I don't know what that is all about. Did you hear how totally vague he was too? I think he's just trying to screw with me, keep me busy because somewhere in that messed up heart of his he feels bad about what happened with—" I slammed my mouth shut. But it already was too late. I was seeing her again. It was like my mind was flooding with images, moments I'd spent with _her. _And the harder I tried to block them all out, the more came in. _Stop it. _I mentally screamed, but it was like a tsunami of feelings was washing over me again. And the memory I hated the most was replaying in my tired brain. The glow in her aura after her betrayal. The glow in his aura, too. It was like someone was banging on the inside of my head with a baseball bat. It physically hurt, and combined with the extreme fatigue after staying up all night, holding on to the railing of the balcony was all I could do not to pass out.

Sage's chocolate eyes found mine, and I stared into them, using her as an anchor to reality. "Adrian, I'm—" she began, sounding awkward.

"Forget it," I said, not letting her finish, my voice growing louder with agony. "You don't know what it's like to love someone, and then have that love thrown back in your face—"

I was interrupted by an ear-splitting scream. I flinched. My vampire hearing was super sensitive, and having a hangover didn't really help me adapt to loud noises very well either. We both hurried back into the apartment as fast as we could manage to see what was going on.

The blond girl was standing in the doorway with her cell phone in her hand. Her aura was a blur of sadness, and grief, and she was as pale as death.

" What's the matter?" Sage asked

She opened her mouth to respond, but then seemed to realize that Sage was human.

"It's okay," I said, "She knows about us. You can trust her." Carla (I was about 67% sure that was her name) looked up at me, her lip trembling. Then she collapsed into my arms, and began crying uncontrollably. I caught her with a swift, practiced movement, and stroked her blonde hair.

"Oh, Jet, I can't believe it happened to her," She said between sobs, "How did this happen."

"What happened?" asked the other girl, who slowly stood up from the couch, sounding half awake.

"Tell us what happened, Carla." I said, my voice as gentle as I could manage.

"I'm Krissy." she sniffed, and I sent her an apologetic look "And our friend—" She wiped her eyes, "Our friend. I just got the call. Our friend-, another Moroi who goes to our college," she paused, shaking, "she's dead." She looked up at the real Carla, "It was Melody. She was killed by Strigoi last night."

Carla began crying too. I was still holding Krissy, who went back to crying her heart out, but my eyes met Sage's. Her expression of complete astonishment matched mine. This was horrible. I felt really bad for the girls, and I hugged Krissy closer to me. I whispered softly in her ear, in the hope of calming her down a bit. Sage however, after the initial shock, switched into stoic alchemist mode, firing questions about the Strigoi attack.

"Where did it happen?"

"W—west hollyw—wood" Carla responded inbetween sobs, "Out behind some club."

I saw Sage exhale in what looked like relief , although I didn't understand what was calming about this answer.

"At least they didn't turn her." Said Krissy, who'd finally stopped crying, but was still holding on to my shirt, "She can rest in peace. Of course those monsters couldn't rest without mutilating her body."

I felt Sage freeze besides me. "What do you mean?"

"Melody. They didn't just drink from her. They slit her throat, too."

I froze as well.

…

_Oh, such an exciting cliffhanger, except for the fact we've all read the book :3._

_If you've got the time, let me know what you think in a review, because it would make my aura go light with happiness. _

_Love, Number 101_


	16. Chapter 16

**_Disclaimer: _**_Richelle Mead's writing is owned by herself, not by late-updating-obsessive-fans like myself. Meh. _

Sage and I exited quickly and quietly, leaving the two girls to mourn their friends' death in peace. They paid little attention to us, and again didn't ask for any personal information from me. Sage took out her phone, and opened up a notepad-app, where she quickly typed in the address and names of the two Moroi girls, in case the Alchemists would need any more information on the killed girl. It was the typical Sage thing to do, extremely organized and careful. Still, I felt a part of her cold professionalism was lacking. She had been just as shocked by the news of the Moroi girl as I had. This surprised me, since, according to protocol, she was still supposed to think of us Moroi as evil creatures of the darkness. But she reacted to this, as if it had been a person, a human who had died.

"What do you think?" Sage asked me.

"Besides that I'm fucking tired?" I said, working harder than usual to keep up my careless façade.

Sage looked up at me with a fierce look in her eyes. "Please stop pretending to be stupid and insensitive, Adrian. I'm tired and I know you know what I'm talking about."

I was surprised at how well she understood me, and the way I acted when dealing with stuff like this. "I know, Sage." I said, "I just don't understand how.." My words trailed off, and I shook my head, trying to clear it. "Listen, if you asked me half an hour ago, if I believed Clarence about those vampire hunters, my answer would have been a solid 'no'. But now, I'm not so sure anymore. I don't see how something like this could happen. Strigoi don't have knives. Or slit throats for that matter." I really was too tired for this, and I was sort of proud of my performance in the 'forming sentences' area.

Sage nodded. "I don't get it either. I have to phone my boss for a second to see if they've got everything covered. Wait for me in the car, okay?"

I managed to stumble to the car, realizing once more how extremely exhausted my sleepless night had made me. I was as close to passed out as you can possibly be while still being awake when I heard Sage open the car door.

"Thank you for saving me." I managed to murmur, just before I slipped into sweet unconsciousness.

… _(this is the part where Adrian sleeps).._

Sage woke me up just a few minutes before we arrived at Clarence Manor. It was, like always, insanely hot out, and I hurried to the shade of the house. Quickly saying hi to Clarence before lying down on my bed. I tried to fall asleep again, but that didn't happen. So I just lay there, trying to work out everything that had happened last night. Not a good idea, because my head only ended up hurting even more than it had done before. I considered going down to get some painkillers or feelbetter-alcohol, but dismissed the idea. Jill was in school right now, I reminded myself. I have to think of her. I closed my eyes and focused on bringing back the careless, happy, easygoing Adrian. Being that version of myself usually didn't take that much out of me, but right now, even with no one around to keep up the act for, it seemed harder than ever. Luckily, before I could actually drown in self-pity, my phone rang.

"Hi, I'm looking for Adrian Ivashkov," A vaguely familiar female voice said.

"Speaking."

"Ah, " The voice said. "This is Maggie, you know, from the art gallery?"

" Of course I remember!" I said. I had been in her tiny LA gallery all night, on a night that I had nowhere else to go. She had given me paint and canvas, and I had created one of the best paintings I ever made. I still had its picture on my phone. "How are you?"

"Perfect. One of my favorite customers came by, and bought two of my own paintings for his new home."

"That's great," I said, "I'm glad the gallery is doing well." I really liked Maggie, with her silk scarves, flowery perfume and kindness. "Tell me, why did you call?"

" Well, it's about the art gallery, actually." She said, "Do you also remember that painting that you made here the night we met?"

"Yes, I do. It was a river. You placed it in your gallery, right?"

"Yes, exactly," She said. "It was so lovely. And it happens to be the reason why I called. Someone has made you an offer."

"HOW MUCH?" I basically screamed into the phone. I had expected to maybe get the painting sold for 50 bucks, or something along those lines. And even then, I really could have used the money. But this was amazing!

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Maggie asked, "It really was an amazing painting."

"I just.. two-and-a-half thousand dollars? Really?"

"Of course, really. I'll send you the money tomorrow. Or you could stop by in my art studio, and come paint with me. You have so much potential. Have you ever considered art school? I teach art courses at a local college. We need students like you. Not sure we could teach you much though…"

For once, I was actually too stunned to speak. For the first time in my life, I'd earned money, all by myself. And if that wasn't enough, I had done it by doing something that I loved doing.

Finally I found my voice again. "I'll stop by tomorrow. I'm not sure about the college thing though. School and I aren't that great together."

"Well, consider it." She said firmly. "I look forward to seeing you again, Adrian Ivashkov."

She hung up, leaving me with a huge smile on my face.

_So. It's been an insanely long time since I updated this story. __PLEASE DON'T VIRTUALLY MURDER ME.__ Partly because I was so busy with school that I didn't have time to write anything that wasn't an essay, partly because I sort of felt like I had lost my inner Adrian. I still love the character, but after TIS I sort of felt disconnected from him (don't take this the wrong way, I loved the book) I have time now, plus the ongoing comments of a guest-reviewer (who apparently now hates me) convinced me to write another chapter. I'm still not sure if I am going to continue this story, but it feels nice to be writing it again. Maybe I'll do this thing where you guys can request chapters from all the books, and I'll write them for you. _

_Please give me your thoughts about that, and this new chapter in a review, and I'll love you forever (only in a mildly creepy way ._.)_

_~Number101_


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